U.S. patent application number 13/570831 was filed with the patent office on 2013-03-14 for methods and systems for time-variable cps based on user interaction with advertisement.
This patent application is currently assigned to Dennoo Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is Shigeto Umeda. Invention is credited to Shigeto Umeda.
Application Number | 20130066715 13/570831 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 47830672 |
Filed Date | 2013-03-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130066715 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Umeda; Shigeto |
March 14, 2013 |
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR TIME-VARIABLE CPS BASED ON USER INTERACTION
WITH ADVERTISEMENT
Abstract
A cost-per-second (CPS) based technology for Internet
advertising is introduced. In one embodiment, the systems and
methods described herein improve efficiency and efficacy of
Internet based advertisements. Efficiency is improved by making
advertisements relevant to the user; decreasing loss or waste in
advertisement space and opportunity for the publisher; and
displaying advertisements only for an appropriate duration and
being charged according to actual duration for the advertiser. In
embodiments, the cost for a certain branding effect can be measured
and used with higher accuracy. In embodiments where multiple
advertisements are shown simultaneously or at various timings, the
technology introduced here provides unique bidding models to allow
an advertiser to bid for advertising space, of an advertisement
display. The bidding models incorporate bidding based on CPS, a
function of CPS and cost-per-click, effective CPS, etc. Conversion
models for comparing advertising schema using traditional and newly
introduced models are also disclosed.
Inventors: |
Umeda; Shigeto; (Palo Alto,
CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Umeda; Shigeto |
Palo Alto |
CA |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Dennoo Inc.
Palo Alto
CA
|
Family ID: |
47830672 |
Appl. No.: |
13/570831 |
Filed: |
August 9, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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13324325 |
Dec 13, 2011 |
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13570831 |
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13477981 |
May 22, 2012 |
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13324325 |
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13478020 |
May 22, 2012 |
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13477981 |
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13540528 |
Jul 2, 2012 |
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13478020 |
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13540538 |
Jul 2, 2012 |
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13540528 |
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61540164 |
Sep 28, 2011 |
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61568594 |
Dec 8, 2011 |
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61600380 |
Feb 17, 2012 |
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61615834 |
Mar 26, 2012 |
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61635819 |
Apr 19, 2012 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.46 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.46 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20120101
G06Q030/02 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Sep 9, 2011 |
JP |
JP 2011-197718 |
Claims
1. A method for processing and displaying an advertisement, the
method comprising: receiving, from an advertiser, by a platform
server having a processor, the advertisement to be displayed in an
advertising section of a publisher's webpage, the advertisement
intended for display for a predefined duration of time within the
advertising section; transmitting, by the platform server, the
advertisement for display within the advertising section of the
publisher's webpage; partitioning, by the platform server, the
advertisement into a plurality of portions, the portions being of
equal duration; determining, by the platform server and for each of
the portions, a cost for displaying a specific portion of the
advertisement, the cost computed as a function of one or more user
interactions with the specific portion of the advertisement; and
computing, by the platform server, a total cost for displaying the
advertisement, the total cost computed as a function of determined
cost of displayed portions.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein a given cost incurred for
displaying a given portion of the advertisement is further computed
as a function of a cost-per-second (CPS) model of displaying the
advertisement within the advertising section, the cost-per-second
model indicative of total duration of display of the given portion
of the advertisement within the advertising section.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein when the given cost incurred for
displaying the given portion of the advertisement is computed as a
function of both the cost-per-second (CPS) model and a given user
interaction of the one or more user interactions with the given
portion of the advertisement, the given cost is computed as an
effective CPS (eCPS) value, the eCPS value being a function of a
predetermined value associated with the given user interaction.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the given user interaction
includes one or more of: a mouse roll-over over the advertisement;
a user click of the advertisement; a rewinding of the
advertisement; a pausing of the advertisement; a playing of the
advertisement; or a entering of information into one or more forms
associated with the advertisement.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined value
associated with the given user interaction is computed as a
function of both a preference score associated with the given user
interaction and a probability of occurrence of the given user
interaction when displaying the given portion of the
advertisement.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the preference score associated
with the given user interaction is computed as a function of a
desirability of the given user interaction to a given advertiser
when displaying the given portion of the advertisement.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein the probability of occurrence of
the given user interaction when displaying the given portion of the
advertisement is computed based on the number of on the nature of
content included in the given portion of the advertisement.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the probability of occurrence of
the given user interaction when displaying the given portion of the
advertisement is further computed based on the number of
occurrences of the given user interaction when displaying the given
portion of the advertisement.
9. An advertising server system for processing advertisements, the
system comprising: a processor; a memory configured to store a set
of instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the
advertising server system to perform a method, the method
including: receiving, from an advertiser, the advertisement to be
displayed in an advertising section of a publisher's webpage, the
advertisement intended for display for a predefined duration of
time within the advertising section; partitioning the advertisement
into a plurality of portions, the portions being of equal duration;
determining, for each of the portions, a cost for displaying a
specific portion of the advertisement, the cost computed as a
function of one or more user interactions with the specific portion
of the advertisement; and computing a total cost for displaying the
advertisement, the total cost computed as a function of determined
cost of displayed portions.
10. The system of claim 9, wherein a given cost incurred for
displaying a given portion of the advertisement is further computed
as a function of a cost-per-second (CPS) model of displaying the
advertisement within the advertising section, the cost-per-second
model indicative of total duration of display of the given portion
of the advertisement within the advertising section.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein when the given cost incurred
for displaying the given portion of the advertisement is computed
as a function of both the cost-per-second (CPS) model and a given
user interaction of the one or more user interactions with the
given portion of the advertisement, the given cost is computed as
an effective CPS (eCPS) value, the eCPS value being a function of a
predetermined value associated with the given user interaction.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the given user interaction
includes one or more of: a mouse roll-over over the advertisement;
a user click of the advertisement; a rewinding of the
advertisement; a pausing of the advertisement; a playing of the
advertisement; or a entering of information into one or more forms
associated with the advertisement.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined value
associated with the given user interaction is computed as a
function of both a preference score associated with the given user
interaction and a probability of occurrence of the given user
interaction when displaying the given portion of the
advertisement.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the preference score associated
with the given user interaction is computed as a function of a
desirability of the given user interaction to a given advertiser
when displaying the given portion of the advertisement.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the probability of occurrence
of the given user interaction when displaying the given portion of
the advertisement is computed based on the number of on the nature
of content included in the given portion of the advertisement.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the probability of occurrence
of the given user interaction when displaying the given portion of
the advertisement is further computed based on the number of
occurrences of the given user interaction when displaying the given
portion of the advertisement.
17. A method for processing and displaying an advertisement, the
method comprising: receiving, from an advertiser, by a platform
server having a processor, the advertisement to be displayed in an
advertising section of a publisher's webpage, the advertisement
intended for display for a predefined duration of time within the
advertising section; partitioning, by the platform server, the
advertisement into a plurality of segments, the segments being of
equal duration; determining, by the platform server, a cost for
displaying a specific segment of the advertisement, the cost
computed as an effective cost-per-second (eCPS) value, the eCPS
value being a function of one or more predetermined values, wherein
each of the one or more predetermined values is associated with a
corresponding one of one or more user interactions with the
specific segment of the advertisement; and computing, by the
platform server, a total cost for displaying the advertisement, the
total cost computed as a function of determined cost of displayed
segments, wherein the total cost for displaying the segments of the
advertisement in the advertising section of the publisher's web
page is assessed based on a cost-per-second (CPS) model.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the CPS model indicative of
total duration of display of the given segment of the advertisement
within the advertising section.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein the given user interaction
includes one or more of: a mouse roll-over over the advertisement;
a user click of the advertisement; a rewinding of the
advertisement; a pausing of the advertisement; a playing of the
advertisement; or a entering of information into one or more forms
associated with the advertisement.
20. The method of claim 17, wherein the predetermined value
associated with the given user interaction is computed as a
function of both a preference score associated with the given user
interaction and a probability of occurrence of the given user
interaction when displaying the given segment of the
advertisement.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the preference score associated
with the given user interaction is computed as a function of a
desirability of the given user interaction to a given advertiser
when displaying the given segment of the advertisement.
22. The method of claim 20, wherein the probability of occurrence
of the given user interaction when displaying the given segment of
the advertisement is computed based on the number of on the nature
of content included in the given segment of the advertisement.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein the probability of occurrence
of the given user interaction when displaying the given segment of
the advertisement is further computed based on the number of
occurrences of the given user interaction when displaying the given
segment of the advertisement.
Description
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent
Application No. 2011-197718, filed Sep. 9, 2011; U.S. Provisional
Application Ser. Nos. 61/540,164, filed Sep. 28, 2011; 61/568,594,
filed Dec. 8, 2011; 611600,380, filed Feb. 17, 2012; 61/615,834,
filed Mar. 26, 2012; and 61/635,819, filed Apr. 19, 2012, and is a
Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/324,325
filed on Dec. 13, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/477,981
filed on May 22, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/478,020
filed on May 22, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/540,528
filed on Jul. 2, 2012; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.
13/540,538 filed on Jul. 2, 2012, all of which are incorporated
herein by reference for all purposes in their entirety.
FIELD
[0002] The present invention generally relates to methods and
systems for processing and displaying advertisements for which the
length of display can be set freely and flexibly. Such processing
and displaying an advertisement may include, for example, providing
a bidding platform, providing a baseline for assessing and
converting costs associated with such advertising, tracking the
relevancy of a displayed advertisement to a user based on the
user's interaction with the displayed advertisement, etc.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Advertising in the field of e-commerce comprises several
different types and modes of advertising, such as, for example,
search based advertising, branding advertising, etc. One of two
main types of advertising mechanisms or e-commerce based
advertisements is the "Direct Response Advertisement," such as
Cost-Per-Click (CPC) in which cost accrues for clicks, or
Cost-per-Action (CPA) in which cost accrues in the event of a
particular action or conversion. The other major type of e-commerce
based advertisement is "branding advertisement" in which cost
accrues not based on clicks, actions or effectiveness, but based on
the number of "impressions," usually in lots of one thousand
impressions, or Cost-per-Mille (CPM). An online advertisement
impression is a single appearance of an advertisement on a web
page. Each time an advertisement loads onto a user's screen, the ad
server may count that loading as one impression.
[0004] There exist other methods that are classified according to
how the display space of an online page is determined, and applies
to both of the abovementioned "main types" of advertisements. These
types of advertisements include keyword-targeting advertisements in
which advertisements that are relevant to the keywords that the
user has entered into search engines are shown along with the
search results, or content-matching advertisements in which
advertisements that are relevant to or match the contents of the
web page are shown. In addition, in terms of the shape and style of
the displayed advertisements, there exist certain categories of
advertisements including, for example, text advertisements where
advertisements are shown in the form of text, and display
advertisements where advertisements are shown in the form of images
or movies. Advertisements in the form of text, banners or images
are shown to the user or audience in a fixed form, and
advertisements in the form of movies or videos are looped, but the
underlying principle remains the same in that all such forms of
advertisements are switched according to certain conditions.
[0005] Specifically, for example, in the world of internet and
e-commerce, the time that an advertisement is displayed will be the
time that the web pages are displayed. In other words, a single
advertisement would be shown to the user (over and over again in a
looped manner in the context of video based advertisements) from
the moment at which the page is displayed to the user until a time
at which the user takes some type of action (e.g., moving/jumping
to another page, reloading/refreshing the page, etc.). The amount
of time before a user moves to another page or reloads the page
varies, so the amount of time for which advertisements are
displayed will also vary. If the page is shown for a long period,
the advertisement will also be shown for a long period.
[0006] There exists a problem that the user or users' attention
towards advertisements will not sustain for long period if the
advertisement is uninteresting or irrelevant to them. Whether or
not the user feels that an advertisement is interesting, relevant
and engaging to them will usually be determined after several
seconds. In other words, if the advertisement is uninteresting to
the user, the user will only watch a few seconds of the
advertisement, or none of it in the worst case. On the other hand,
if the advertisement is interesting to the user, the user knows
that he/she is interested in the advertisement by watching a mere
few seconds of it. If a single advertisement is shown to the user
in the advertisement space (e.g., by being looped through the
duration of the user's page visit), it is not beneficial to the
user in both cases: where the advertisement matches the user's
interest, or where the advertisement does not match the user's
interest. This is a wasted advertising opportunity for the
publisher of the page, loss in efficiency or efficacy of the
advertising for the advertiser, and overall loss in realizable
revenue for both the advertiser and the publisher.
[0007] In general, the billing systems for online advertisements
include: (1) in the case of direct response advertisements: costs
accrued for clicks; (2) in the case of branding advertisements:
costs based on CPM. For example, direct response advertisements and
CPC are advertisements in which cost accrues for the advertiser
when the user clicks on an advertisement and progresses or shifts
to a website resulting from a click of the advertisement.
[0008] In scenarios where the publisher's media has long viewing
times (e.g., a lengthy newspaper article) but the click through
rate (CTR) is low. The clickthrough rate of an advertisement is
defined as the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of
times the ad is shown (impressions), expressed as a percentage. A
low CTR would mean that when selling direct response
advertisements, useless advertisements that do not generate value
are shown repeatedly to the user, thus reducing the overall
advertising efficacy for both the publisher and the advertiser.
This results in significant loss of opportunity.
[0009] Presently, billing for advertisements is predominantly
according to CPM models, especially for branding advertisements.
According to the CPM model, advertisers bid (sometimes through Real
Time Bidding) for certain advertisement spaces as a function of
1,000 PVs (1000 page views). That is, the bid price is set for each
1000 PV count. Such a CPM model does not take into account critical
factors such as an amount of time for displaying advertisements,
etc. This results in the advertisers never knowing for what period
of time (total number of seconds) the advertisement had a branding
effect for the user, and in effect, blindly placing advertisements
based on page views without any realization or consideration for
what type of a branding effect or other ROI the online advertising
campaign provides.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0010] These and other objects, features and characteristics of the
present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the
art from a study of the following detailed description in
conjunction with the appended claims and drawings, all of which
form a part of this specification. In the drawings:
[0011] FIG. 1 provides a brief, general description of a
representative environment in which the invention can be
implemented;
[0012] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary
architecture of a platform server;
[0013] FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate differences in page and
session view usage between conventional methods and CPS-backed
methods;
[0014] FIG. 3D proposes a model for effective CPS and illustrates
how this effective value compares against traditional advertising
billing schema;
[0015] FIG. 3E illustrates differences in ad spending allocation
between the traditional advertising billing schema and the proposed
CPS-backed schema;
[0016] FIG. 4 provides a brief, general description of a
representative environment in which a second embodiment of the
invention can be implemented;
[0017] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram that shows an example of the
relationship between page transition and advertisement display in
one embodiment of the technology introduced herein;
[0018] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate computation of Gross Rating Point
(GRP);
[0019] FIG. 7 is a high-level block diagram showing an example of
the architecture for a computer system;
[0020] FIG. 8 is a bidding portal for advertisers to place ad
bids;
[0021] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary process for
combining CPC and CPS based ad bids in a conventional ad
auction;
[0022] FIGS. 10A, 10B and 10C illustrate an ad ecosystem where
conventional page views are converted into sessions and CPS based
ad bids are placed;
[0023] FIGS. 11A, 11B and 11C illustrate the various Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) that are provided by the CPS based ad
platform to help better understand an ad campaign's
effectiveness;
[0024] FIGS. 12A, 12B and 12C illustrate an interactive ad slot
used to track user interaction;
[0025] FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C illustrate an ad slot that both
displays advertisements and enables users to "keep", "share" and
"replay" the displayed advertisements;
[0026] FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating the time-variable
CPS;
[0027] FIG. 15 illustrates an advertisement with a time-variable
CPS c(t); and
[0028] FIG. 16 illustrates function f such that the function
assigns {circumflex over (m)}.sub.i.apprxeq.m.sub.i if
i.ltoreq..theta. and {circumflex over (m)}.sub.i<m.sub.i if
i>.theta..
[0029] The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do
not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed
invention.
[0030] In the drawings, the same reference numbers and any acronyms
identify elements or acts with the same or similar structure or
functionality for ease of understanding and convenience. To easily
identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most
significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the
Figure number in which that element is first introduced (e.g.,
element 114 is first introduced and discussed with respect to FIG.
1).
SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION
[0031] The invention relates to processing and presenting a
plurality of advertisements online.
[0032] In a first aspect, a method for advertisement processing is
disclosed. The method includes receiving, from an advertiser, by a
platform server having a processor, the advertisement to be
displayed in an advertising section of a publisher's webpage, the
advertisement intended for display for a predefined duration of
time within the advertising section. The method further includes
transmitting, by the platform server, the advertisement for display
within the advertising section of the publisher's webpage. The
method further includes determining, by the platform server, a
first cost incurred for displaying a first portion of the
advertisement, the first cost computed as a function of a first
user interaction with the displayed first portion of the
advertisement. The method further includes determining, by the
platform server, a second cost incurred for displaying a second
portion of the advertisement, the second cost computed as a
function of a second user interaction with the displayed second
portion of the advertisement. The method further includes
computing, by the platform server, a total cost incurred for
displaying both the first portion of the advertisement and the
second portion of the advertisement, the final cost computed as a
function of the first cost and the second cost.
[0033] Implementations can include any, all or none of the
following features. The method further includes, wherein a given
cost incurred for displaying a given portion of the advertisement
is further computed as a function of a cost-per-second (CPS) model
of displaying the advertisement within the advertising section, the
cost-per-second model indicative of total duration of display of
the given portion of the advertisement within the advertising
section.
[0034] Additionally, the method further includes wherein when the
given cost incurred for displaying the given portion of the
advertisement is computed as a function of both the cost-per-second
(CPS) model and a given user interaction with the given portion of
the advertisement, the given cost is computed as an effective CPS
(eCPS) value, the eCPS value being a function of a predetermined
value associated with the given user interaction. The method could
further include, wherein the given user interaction includes one or
more of: (1) a mouse roll-over over the advertisement; (2) a user
click of the advertisement; (3) a rewinding of the advertisement;
(4) a pausing of the advertisement; (5) a playing of the
advertisement; or (6) a entering of information into one or more
forms associated with the advertisement.
[0035] The method can further include, wherein the predetermined
value associated with the given user interaction is computed as a
function of both a preference score associated with the given user
interaction and a probability of occurrence of the given user
interaction when displaying the given portion of the advertisement.
The method can further include, wherein the preference score
associated with the given user interaction is computed as a
function of a desirability of the given user interaction to a given
advertiser when displaying the given portion of the advertisement.
The method can further include, wherein the probability of
occurrence of the given user interaction when displaying the given
portion of the advertisement is computed based on the number of on
the nature of content included in the given portion of the
advertisement. The method can further include, wherein the
probability of occurrence of the given user interaction when
displaying the given portion of the advertisement is further
computed based on the number of occurrences of the given user
interaction when displaying the given portion of the
advertisement.
[0036] Implementations can include any, all or none of the
following features. Other advantages and features will become
apparent from the following description and claims. It should be
understood that the description and specific examples are intended
for purposes of illustration only and not intended to limit the
scope of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0037] Various examples of the invention will now be described. The
following description provides specific details for a thorough
understanding and enabling description of these examples. One
skilled in the relevant art will understand, however, that the
invention may be practiced without many of these details. Likewise,
one skilled in the relevant art will also understand that the
invention can include many other obvious features not described in
detail herein. Additionally, some well-known structures or
functions may not be shown or described in detail below, so as to
avoid unnecessarily obscuring the relevant description.
[0038] The terminology used below is to be interpreted in its
broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in
conjunction with a detailed description of certain specific
examples of the invention. Indeed, certain terms may even be
emphasized below; however, any terminology intended to be
interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and
specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description
section.
[0039] FIG. 1 and the following discussion provide a brief, general
description of a representative environment in which the invention
can be implemented. Although not required, aspects of the invention
may be described below in the general context of
computer-executable instructions, such as routines executed by a
general-purpose data processing device (e.g., a server computer or
a personal computer). Those skilled in the relevant art will
appreciate that the invention can be practiced with other
communications, data processing, or computer system configurations,
including: wireless devices, Internet appliances, hand-held devices
(including personal digital assistants (PDAs)), wearable computers,
all manner of cellular or mobile phones, multi-processor systems,
microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, set-top
boxes, network PCs, mini-computers, mainframe computers, and the
like. Indeed, the terms "computer," "server," and the like are used
interchangeably herein, and may refer to any of the above devices
and systems.
[0040] While aspects of the invention, such as certain functions,
are described as being performed exclusively on a single device,
the invention can also be practiced in distributed environments
where functions or modules are shared among disparate processing
devices. The disparate processing devices are linked through a
communications network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide
Area Network (WAN), or the Internet. In a distributed computing
environment, program modules may be located in both local and
remote memory storage devices.
[0041] Aspects of the invention may be stored or distributed on
tangible computer-readable media, including magnetically or
optically readable computer discs, hard-wired or preprogrammed
chips (e.g., EEPROM semiconductor chips), nanotechnology memory,
biological memory, or other data storage media. Alternatively,
computer implemented instructions, data structures, screen
displays, and other data related to the invention may be
distributed over the Internet or over other networks (including
wireless networks), on a propagated signal on a propagation medium
(e.g., an electromagnetic wave(s), a sound wave, etc.) over a
period of time. In some implementations, the data may be provided
on any analog or digital network (packet switched, circuit
switched, or other scheme).
[0042] As shown in FIG. 1, a user may use a personal computing
device (e.g., a phone 102, a personal computer 104, etc.) to
communicate with a network and/or view displays communicated via
the network 110. The term "phone," as used herein, may be a cell
phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable email device
(e.g., a Blackberry.RTM.), a portable media player (e.g., an IPod
Touch.RTM.), or any other device having communication capability to
connect to the network. In one example, the phone 102 connects
using one or more cellular transceivers or base station antennas
106 (in cellular implementations), access points, terminal
adapters, routers or modems 108 (in IP-based telecommunications
implementations), or combinations of the foregoing (in converged
network embodiments). In some instances, one or more users may also
use an electronic display 132 (e.g., an electronic overhead
display, an electronic billboard display, etc.) to view information
communicated via the network. In the context of this description,
information communicated may include, for example, advertisements
displayed either by themselves or advertisements displayed in
conjunction with web pages or other online media a user may be
watching/experiencing. Concepts behind display of such
advertisements will be explained in further detail in the following
sections.
[0043] In some instances, the network 110 is the Internet, allowing
the phone 102 (with, for example, WiFi capability), the personal
computer 104, or the electronic display 122 to access content
offered via various servers (e.g., web server 120) connected via
the network. In some instances, especially where the phone 102 is
used to access web content through the network 110 (e.g., when a 3G
or an LTE service of the phone 102 is used to connect to the
network 110), the network 110 may be any type of cellular, IP-based
or converged telecommunications network, including but not limited
to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (COMA),
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM), General
Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE),
Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access (WiMAX), Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System (UMTS), Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO), Long Term Evolution
(LTE), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP), Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), etc.
[0044] In some instances, a user uses one of the computing devices
(e.g., the phone 102, the personal computer 104, etc.) to connect
to an platform server 114 through the network 110. In one
embodiment, the platform server 114 comprises a server computer 116
coupled to a local database 118. The term "platform server" as
indicated herein, refers to an individual or multiple server
stations or other computing apparatus. In one embodiment, the
platform server is a web server capable of hosting a website and
storing content (e.g., various webpages) that is associated with
the website. In some embodiments, the platform server is separate
from a web server, but communicates with a web server to provide,
manage, and/or control content generated by the web server. In
general, the platform server 114 includes various modules (either
implemented as software or in hardware) that allow for advertising
information to be collected from advertisers wishing to
strategically engage in an advertising campaign, and to coordinate
and relay ensuing advertisements to end systems. In embodiments,
the platform server may independently coordinate the processing and
eventual display of advertisements. In embodiments, as will be
explained in the example of FIG. 2, the platform server may offer
interfaces (e.g., APIs) to existing advertising network platforms
to coordinate one or more specific advertising activities (e.g.,
providing abilities for bidding, providing campaign conversion
modules, etc.) as will be explained in further detail below. As
will also be explained in further detail herein, the administration
server 114 incorporates one or more functional units to achieve
each of the above discussed functionalities.
[0045] As shown in FIG. 1, in some embodiments, the personal
computing devices and the administration server 114 are connected
through the network 110 to one or more web servers (e.g., web
server 120). Each web server corresponds to a computing station
that enables a website provider, for example, to provide web
content (e.g., web pages) that can be accessed by the personal
computing devices through the network 110.
[0046] An platform server, as defined herein, could be a separate
server offering the service described herein to, for example, one
or more website providers. In other examples, the administration
server could by itself be a website provider that also runs a
service that accomplishes the techniques described herein.
Additional examples of implementing an administration server, as
understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art, are equally
suitable for implementing the techniques described herein.
[0047] In the context of the systems described herein, in one
embodiment, the platform server is implemented as a search system
that enables advertisement display measures, allowing one or more
advertisements to be shown either simultaneously or at various
discrete timings based on advertisement data obtained through the
network (e.g., from an advertising client 132). The platform server
114 may then communicate the advertisement to an advertisement
display system (e.g., the user's personal computing device) in
which the individual advertisements are shown for a predetermined
length of time or according to variables established by the
advertising client.
[0048] Consider an exemplary scenario where distinct advertisements
x1, x2, x3, . . . xp are to be shown to the user as processed and
output by the platform server 114. These advertisements are
predetermined to be displayed for lengths of t1, t2, t3, . . . tp.
However, this does mean that that the advertisement to be shown is
also predetermined. For example, if a user browses and views the
internet using a PC, various advertisements may be shown for
various situations, and the techniques described herein includes
the case in which these advertisements are shown and sustained for
a predetermined length of time.
[0049] An advertisement, as described herein, includes without
limitation movies, still images, banners, animated pictures, etc.
As processed by the platform server, such advertisements are shown
for a period and such periods may be predetermined, for example, by
the advertiser. In cases where the advertisement is a movie, either
the length of the prepared movie or the play time designated by the
advertiser will be the display time for the advertisement. In cases
where the advertisement is a still image, the display time will be
the time designated by the advertiser.
[0050] The "display" of an advertisement refers to display of an
advertisement that can be substantial or meaningful. For example,
on a web screen, if the user scrolls down on the screen, it is
preferable that the advertisement scrolls alongside to fit the
screen on which it is displayed. However, if the above method is
not possible and the user scrolls the screen to the extent that the
advertisement is no longer visible on the screen displayed, the
advertisement should be stopped, and the time that the
advertisement had been played should be recorded (at least for the
purpose of computing cost per second of display of the
advertisement, as will be explained further below). When the
advertisement returns to display on the screen, the advertisement
should be resumed, and the total playing time will be recorded at
the end of the advertisement or at the time of the next stop. The
judgment of "whether the advertisement is displayed or not" can,
for example, be that if a certain proportion of the advertisement
is not shown within the screen, the advertisement can be considered
to be "not displayed on the screen". Here, a "certain proportion"
can refer to a proportion at which substantial viewing of the
advertisement can be deemed to be difficult, for example at a
proportion of 50% or more. However, more than 50% is merely an
example, and the proportion need not be limited to 50% or more. For
example, the advertisement display can be divided into a major
portion (e.g. the portion where the product or service name to be
advertised is shown) and a minor portion, and when the major
portion is shown on the screen, it may be judged that the
advertisement is displayed on the screen.
[0051] The techniques discussed herein include a bidding system
that allows an advertiser to place a bid for a certain spot and
duration of advertisement. As illustrated with respect to FIG. 2,
the platform server 114, in some embodiments, may include a bidding
platform module 202 to enable the bidding operations. In the way of
an example, the bidding platform module may present an appropriate
GUI to the advertising client 132 to enable the advertiser to make
appropriate selections and provide input. These are then taken in
by the bidding platform module 202 for further processing and
assessing for bidding.
[0052] In situations where the advertiser is aware of the display
length beforehand, in embodiments, the advertiser may use bidding
as the method of advertisement display time sales ("purchase" from
the advertisers' perspective) in order to determine the order of
precedence when displaying the advertisement(s). In other words,
the amount of advertisement that can be displayed within an
advertising space is generally finite. In addition, for web
screens, if there is more than one advertisement that can be shown
on the same advertisement space, the order in which the
advertisements are placed becomes important. Specifically, when
displaying advertisements on a specific advertisement space or for
specific keywords, an input is made (e.g., in the form of a bid)
for the maximum cost/price that the advertiser can bear for that
particular combination of duration and order. It is evident that
the order or precedence will be higher when this cost/price is
higher.
[0053] The following are sample pseudo codes for determination of
parameters/events for an effective "display" of an
advertisement:
[0054] (1) Determination of ads playing across page views.
[0055] (2) Detection of mouse roll-over over a given area in a
given page view.
[0056] (3) Real-time verification/measurement of percentage of
screen area covered by an ad.
[0057] Pseudo Code: [0058] (1) Determination of ads playing across
page views:
TABLE-US-00001 [0058] if (hasContext( )) { sendLog( );
deleteContext( ); playContext( ); sendLog( ); } else { sendLog( );
playAd( ); sendLog( ): } eventhook(unload) { sendLog( );
saveContext( ); }
[0059] (2) Detection of mouse roll-over over a given area in a
given page view
TABLE-US-00002 [0059] eventhook(mousein) { sendLog( );
enlargeWindow( ); } eventhook(mouseout) { sendLog( ); reduceWindow(
); }
[0060] (3) Real-time verification/measurement of percentage of
screen area covered by an ad
TABLE-US-00003 [0060] eventhook(resize) { WindowArea =
width*height; sendLog(AdArea, WindowArea); } eventhook(mousein) {
enlargeAdWindow( ); AdArea = AdWidth*AdHeight; sendLog(AdArea,
WindowArea); } eventhook(mouseout) { reduceAdWindow( ); AdArea =
AdWidth*AdHeight; sendLog(AdArea, WindowArea); }
Cost Per Second (CPS) Based Technology
[0061] In at least some embodiments as disclosed herein, the length
of time that an advertisement will be shown will vary not only
according to the advertisement itself, but also according to
secondary factors (e.g., keywords, search relevance, etc.). For
example, when publishing an advertisement on a search result page,
conventionally, bids are placed for a certain keyword A, and the
advertisement to be displayed with higher priority is determined
and fixed according to this price. On the other hand, for this
invention, comparisons are not made according to the price per
display (or impression) of an advertisement, but by the bid on the
price per unit of time, or Cost per Second (CPS). Bids can be
placed directly through CPS, or the cost per advertisement can be
used as the unit of bid, and divided by the number of seconds of
advertisement display in order to calculate the CPS to compare
prices between various advertisements.
[0062] For example, assume that there exist two advertisement
spaces (F1 and F2) on a search result page for a certain keyword A,
and that the advertisement effect of advertisement space F1 excels
that of advertisement space F2. If advertiser D1 bids for price P1,
advertiser D2 bids for price P2, advertiser D3 bids for price P3
and P1>P2>P3, conventionally, advertiser D1 won advertisement
space F1, advertiser D2 won advertisement space F2 and advertiser
D3 could not win an advertisement space. As a result, the
publisher/media can only utilize two advertisement spaces (and lose
revenue from advertiser D3), and advertiser D3 would lose the
opportunity to advertise.
[0063] However, using technology introduced herein, for example,
the publisher/media can sell the two advertisement spaces (F1 and
F2) separately at the time of the bid. For example, for
advertisement space F1 advertiser D1 bids for a CPS price P1,
advertiser D2 bids for a CPS price P2, advertiser D3 bids for a CPS
price P3 and P1>P2>P3, the advertisement display time for F1
can be sold to advertiser D1, advertiser D2 and advertiser D3 in
the respective order.
[0064] Additionally, if the total time that the advertisements are
played for each advertisers D1, D2 and D3 are T1, T2 and T3,
respectively, in simple terms, the publisher/media receives an
advertising revenue of P1.times.T1+P2.times.T2+P3.times.T3 (in
reality, if the displayable time exceeds T1+T2+T3, the order of
priority will be determined as D1>D2>D3. Additionally, the
order of priority can be changed according to other factors such as
the time in the day, etc.). As a result, the publisher/media can
utilize their advertisement space with higher efficiency, and each
advertiser will be able to display advertisements with higher
efficacy. In other words, if each advertisers' advertisement
(assuming that each had one type of advertisement) has a display
length of t1, t2 and t3 per advertisement, each advertiser will be
able to publish T1/t1, T2/t2 and T3/t3 advertisements respectively
(assuming that there is no upper limit to the display time). For
the user, the amount of information received would be greater than
the conventional cases in which one advertisement is shown
repeatedly. However, it should be noted that the above example is a
highly simplified version. Alternately, a better system may be one
that incorporates a display method in which the price determination
method is consistent with that in the conventional market.
[0065] As offered by the CPS technology introduced herein, the
advertisement billing is based on CPS.times.Seconds Displayed. In
embodiments, the cost charged to the advertiser is based on the
actual display time. This is because the purchase of the
advertisement space is not for an entire unit based of a single
display, but for the price/cost per second of an advertisement that
will be shown only for a certain time length. The "actual display
time" should ideally be the "time that the user is actually
watching." The actual display time may be measured using techniques
as understood by people of ordinary skill in the art at the time of
this application. However, in systems where constraints are present
due to, for example, cost and facilities, the realistic time
measurement used be the "time that the advertisement is shown on
the screen". In other words, the advertisement display time will be
measured as the "period in which the advertisement is displayed on
the screen".
[0066] Accordingly, in embodiments, advertisements are shown for a
certain periods of time. In other words, the advertisements
displayed will have a designated order or priority, and more than
one advertisement may be shown continuously in a loop. The order,
precedence, and length of running such advertisements may be based
on a variety of factors. Such factors may be accounted for, for
example, through the bidding platform offered in conjunction with
the platform server. An example of such a factor may be an order of
priority (e.g. time of the day). When such a factor is introduced,
it is not known under which conditions the advertisement should be
displayed for higher effectiveness. One way to overcome this issue
would be to play the advertisements in varying orders with equal
likeliness. When this is the case, a statistically significant
sample size will be chosen, and various orders will be tested for
this sample. The index when evaluating the effectiveness can be,
for example, Seconds per Click (SPC), or the number of seconds
necessary until the user clicks the advertisement. Analyzing that
information over, for example, the time of day such events occur,
statistical information may be collected to determine order of
priority and corresponding bid value for placing advertisements on
the web screens. Using these results, the advertisements can be
shown in the order of this index.
[0067] The explanation illustrated an example of a case in which
advertisements are shown on a search result page, but it is
understood that the techniques discussed herein may be applied to a
variety of other advertisement types as well. For example, the
techniques introduced herein include a novel online advertisement
concept where direct response advertisement and branding
advertisement are both combined (the product of the two is taken)
Correspondingly, there are two main types of advertisement sales:
(1) the CPS (cost per second) mode of advertisement sales (as
discussed above); and (2) the product of CPS and Cost per Click
(CPC), which would be CPS.times.CPC. CPS is the price per second of
advertisement display, and CPC is the cost that the advertiser
bears when a user clicks on an advertisement while watching an
advertisement and jumps to a website designated by the advertiser.
In order to determine the order of priority of advertisement
display, the prices of advertisements (e.g., as placed in bid
values) are compared, but in an exemplary scenario, a value in
which both the CPS and the CPC are included may also be considered
in assessing relevance and priority of the bidders. As indicated
here, N=CPS.times.CPC may be a simple case for accounting the CPS
and CPC elements jointly, but it is understood that other
conversion formulas where the two elements may be effectively
considered may also be used.
[0068] In embodiments, the platform server 114 includes logic for
the purposes of determination of the two types of cost
determination and to identify targets and correlation between the
two types. In embodiments, and as illustrated in FIG. 2, the
platform server may include one or more of the following modules,
each being implemented either in hardware, software, or firmware,
or a combination thereof: an advertisement (or ad) suggestion
module 222 to make determinations and provide according suggestions
as to the type, content, duration, etc. of advertisements to be
placed on various publishers' sites. The logic incorporated in this
module may include, for example, algorithms to identify
significance, meaning, context, relevance, etc. of a particular
website and accordingly identify relevant advertisements. Further,
the platform server 114 may include an advertisement accepting
means 204 for accepting advertisements uploaded by advertising
clients 132. In embodiments, the platform server 114 may also
include advertisement memory 208 for storing advertisements
received from advertisers and advertisement information memory 210
for storing information related to advertisements (e.g., relevance
information, order or priority information, etc.). In some
instances, the modules may further include an ad selection module
216 and an ad distribution module 218 that are configured
respectively to select an appropriate ad and to transmit the ad to
a predetermined web screen based on determinations made by the
platform server.
[0069] In embodiments, these include means that are accessible
online by the advertiser. Each component/module identified above
may be implemented as discrete software or hardware units or a
combination thereof. In embodiments, for example, the advertisement
space suggestion module to suggest advertisements for publishing on
advertisements spaces and the advertisement bidding means can be
combined into or be coupled to a web server 120. In embodiments,
the structure of the platform may include, for example (in the case
of displaying advertisements in a search result page), a GUI to
suggest a page in which the keywords used for the search, the
various attributes of the user to which the advertisement is
desired to be displayed (gender, age, region, profession,
educational background, hobbies, etc), the preferred time of the
day to display the advertisement can be entered, etc. According to
these entered inputs, the price per unit of time for purchasing the
advertisement space and the entry field for purchasing the
advertisement space (or an entry page) will be then be displayed.
For the suggested advertisement space, the advertiser inputs (e.g.,
through the bidding platform) the desired price per unit of time to
purchase the advertisement space, and the number of advertisement
spaces to purchase. However, in embodiments, the purchasing of
advertisement space can be for the total length of time that the
advertisement will be displayed.
[0070] In embodiments, the advertisement information memory 210 and
the advertisement data memory 212 to store the advertisement itself
may include, for example, advertisement information database means
to store information related to the advertisement and an
advertisement data database means respectively to store the
advertisement itself.
[0071] To reiterate, the CPS methodology for pricing advertisements
has unique fairness and efficiency considerations over conventional
systems as outlined below.
[0072] Fairness:
[0073] With the adoption of the CPS methodologies discussed herein,
pricing becomes fair relative to conventional systems. For example,
an advertiser uploads a 15-seconds ad, bids $0.02/sec for CPS, and
an optional $0.3 for CPC. If a user stays 10 seconds and clicks on
the ad, the advertiser pays $0.50. If the user stays for 2 seconds
and does not click, the advertiser pays $0.04 (FIG. 2-1). That
contributes to considerable improvement in fair value-for-money
(VFM).
[0074] Additionally, the advertisers are charged according to the
size of the ad space, where for example, an ad space occupying 30%
of the viewing area in a page view attracts a higher ad placement
cost than an ad space occupying just 10% of the viewing area in a
page view. The rationale behind such a model could be that the
bigger the size of ad display, the greater the chance that the ad
will attract a user's attention and create the desired impression.
Further, the methodology could account for change in size of ad
space in a page view and reflect the change in pricing of cost of
ad placement in that page view. In embodiments, the users could be
allowed to customize the ad space in their page view. For example,
the users could customize the ad space similar to that of a web
page loaded in a web browser. The user could minimize the ad space
to one of the corners of the page view, drag and drop the ad space
in any section of the page view, expand or shrink the ad space,
etc. In embodiments, the final cost of the ad placement in the CPS
methodology will reflect the cost for placing the ad in the final
customized ad space. Further, the specifications of the final
customized ad space can be captured and stored, for example, in a
web browser cookie. The stored specification can later be used to
configure the ad space for the user in other web pages, while using
the specification to predetermine the CPS based cost of placing an
ad in such an ad space. That further contributes to considerable
improvement in fair value-for-money (VFM).
[0075] Efficiency:
[0076] Session and page view usage becomes efficient with use of
CPS methodologies, which are discussed in detail herein. For
example, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, in conventional display
ads, a user session in a publisher's website is dissected into
multiple page views and each page view is constituted as an
independent ad slot. The time a user stays on a given page before
changing pages constitutes a page view. So, every time a user
visits a publisher's website, the user could potentially view
multiple web pages in the publisher's website. The visit could thus
result in multiple page views with each page view constituting an
independent ad slot. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, in a 110-second
user session on a given publisher's website, the user had three
page views of about 45 seconds, 55 seconds, and 10 seconds,
respectively. A 70 second ad from Advertiser A was displayed for
only 45 seconds on page view 1.
[0077] A full 30 second ad from Advertiser B was displayed on page
view 2 and a 25 second ad from Advertiser C was displayed on page
view 3 for only 10 seconds. In this page view based system, ads
either only takes up a portion of the page view, or conversely, the
page view is not long enough to show the entire ad. As illustrated
in FIG. 3B, this typically leads to severe loss in efficiency:
lower VFM for advertisers as they are charged for the cost of a
full ad even when the ads are not fully played, and smaller, less
efficient inventory for publishers.
[0078] In the CPS methodology, however, as illustrated in FIG. 3C,
the entire user session becomes a single unit ad slot, dissected
into seconds. Sessions can be tailored to the exact needs of
advertisers. Page views will no longer matter, and the flexibility,
efficiency and effectiveness of advertisements improve
significantly. When using advertisements of variable lengths such
as those devised by the techniques described herein, the switching
of advertisements are based not on page transition, but on time. A
user transition from one page view to another does not cut-off an
ad, Instead, the ad is resumed in the next page view until it is
fully played. For example, in a 110-second user session, 70 seconds
can be allocated to advertiser 1, another 30 seconds to advertiser
B, and 5 seconds to advertiser C. When the user transitions from
page view 1 to page view 2 after 45 seconds, 25 seconds of
play-time is still left on ad A. Therefore, ad A is resumed and
played for the remaining 25 seconds in page view 2 before ad B is
played. Once ad A is complete, ad B is played for 30 seconds. When
the user transitions to page view 3, and B is fully played. So, ad
C starts playing at the beginning of page view 3. However, the user
ends the session with 20 seconds of play-time left in ad C.
Therefore, the advertiser is charged only for the 5 seconds of the
25 second play-time ad C was played. Thus, page views will no
longer matter, and the flexibility, efficiency and effectiveness of
advertisements improve significantly.
[0079] The CPS methodology, thus, addresses the severe loss in
efficiency associated with the conventional internet advertisement
system: improved VFM for advertisers as they are charged, not by ad
slots, but by the total play-time for a given ad, and a larger,
more efficient inventory for publishers. When this revived value is
aggregated for the entire market, the overall opportunity and
improvement is enormous, in FIG. 3E, the graphs illustrate how $1
million was allocated for a 15 sec long ad campaign in the
conventional and the CPS-based ad platform respectively. In the
conventional ad platform, 30% of the $1 million allocation was
spent on ads that received zero play-time. This is possible in the
conventional ad platform because the advertisers are charged by
page view. In the event the user changes page when the ad is
loading, the advertiser is still charged for the page view with
literally no ad play-time. As can be seen in the FIG. 3E, only
$50,000 out of the $1 million spent on ads received the full
play-time. On the other hand, in the CPS-based ad platform,
advertisers pay based on the actual play-time received by the ad
and not by page views. So, instead of $50,000, $350,000 of the $1
million spent on ads received the full play-time. Furthermore, the
rest of the $1 million goes towards ads that received substantial
play-time while nothing was spent on ads that received zero
play-time. Thus, this revived value for advertisers and publishers,
when aggregated for the entire market, presents an enormous
improvement over the conventional internet ad platform.
[0080] Returning back to the illustration of FIG. 1, the process of
utilizing the platform server to process and display advertisements
is now explained with respect to two scenarios: (1) when the
advertisement is returned to a user viewing the advertisement in a
web screen; (2) when the advertisement is displayed to multiple
users over an electronic display instrument (e.g., an electronic
bill board).
[0081] As illustrated in FIG. 1, when the advertiser accesses the
bidding platform module of the platform server 114, the system, for
example, suggests an entry field for the desired conditions
regarding the advertisement display. The advertiser 132 inputs the
desired conditions accordingly. In response, the platform server
114 may request entry of an advertisement. The received
advertisement and advertisement information is then stored in the
advertisement video database and the advertisement information
database by the advertisement reception device. In embodiments, the
information stored in the advertisement video database and the
information stored in the advertisement information database are
related and attributed by an advertisement ID that is unique to
each advertisement. In embodiments, when the advertisement
information is transmitted to a display device, the related
information may also be attributed by the advertisement ID.
[0082] In the first scenario, the user typically has an
advertisement display device that is loaded into the web browser
(e.g., a widget within a web page, etc.). At this time, in order to
display advertisements that match the user's interests, information
regarding the page shown and user IDs are sent to the advertisement
selection device of the platform server. An advertisement selection
module 216 selects the advertisement(s) to be displayed based on
the received information and the advertisement data stored in the
advertisement information database. The advertisement selection
module 216 selects the advertisements to be shown, and the
advertisement ID of the advertisement to be shown will be sent to
the advertisement screening device (e.g., the user's computer).
[0083] After receiving one or more advertisement IDs from the
advertisement selection module 216, the advertisement transmitting
or distribution module 218 sends one or more advertisements
continuously to the advertisement display device. The advertisement
screening device displays the advertisement to the user upon
reception. For videos, the display time is generally determined by
the length that the video advertisement is played. For still
images, the display time is determined by the time designated by
the advertiser.
[0084] FIG. 4 illustrates the second scenario, where the
advertisement display device with which the user watches
advertisements is not equipped on the browser, but rather a device
that is connected to the internet, such as on an LCD display for
street advertising (e.g., device 122). In this scenario, the
advertisement display device is not equipped on a web browser, so
information as to the basis of selecting the advertisement to
display may not exist. In such cases, the advertisement display
device does not send out information for advertisement selection,
but instead just display the advertisements continuously in a
predetermined order. However, for example, if a digital signage
device is located in various stores and locations, it is possible
that conditions for selecting the advertisement, such as showing it
on a device in a ramen noodle store in the shopping quarters from 5
PM to 11 PM, are specified and the advertisements are shown
accordingly. In such cases, the advertisement that best matches
such conditions may be selected. For videos, the display time is
generally determined by the length that the video advertisement is
played. For still images, the display time is determined by the
time designated by the advertiser
[0085] A third scenario of processing and displaying advertisements
in accordance with the techniques discussed herein is illustrated
with reference to FIG. 4. In this example, the publishing of
advertisements and the displaying on the advertisement viewing
device are carried out not directly between the advertiser and the
user, but by using interfaces to a Demand Side Platform (DSP) 530
and a Supply Side Platform (SSP) 540. The composition of this
exemplary embodiment constitutes an advertisement exchange that can
incorporate the present teachings with conventional advertising
exchanges.
[0086] In embodiments, either the DSP, SSP or both may be included.
The composition can be either through a connection with the DSP, a
composition with a direct connection to the advertiser, or a
combination thereof. Similarly, the composition can be either
through a connection with the SSP, a composition with a direct
connection to the user, or a combination. Other similar
combinations of one or more DSPs and SSPs, as may be contemplated
by a person of ordinary skill in the art, may also be used as
alternate or variants of the above discussed composition.
[0087] In this example, when the advertisement is sent by the
advertiser, it is stored in the DSP, which acts as the mediator on
the advertiser's side. The DSP then selects an advertisement
exchange from among the advertisement exchanges, and the
advertisement is published. In order for the device devised by this
invention to receive the advertisement, a bid to determine the
price of the advertisement is received from the advertiser through
the DSP.
[0088] On the other hand, on the user's side, the advertisement is
received not directly from the device devised by this
advertisement, but from the SSP, and the advertisement is shown.
After receiving the advertisement display request from the user,
the SSP selects one or more advertisement exchanges to receive
advertisements from, and requests for advertisements. At this time,
the system (advertisement exchange) devised by this invention,
which has received the advertisement request, also receives
information necessary to select the advertisement that best matches
the user, and according to this information, chooses the best-match
advertisement from the displayable advertisements, sending the
advertisement to the SSP. After receiving the advertisement, the
SSP sends the advertisement to the user, and the user watches the
advertisement. One such exemplary composition is illustrated in
FIG. 5.
[0089] In embodiments, with such a composition, the advertising
side can increase the effectiveness of their advertisement by
widening the array of media/publishers to display their
advertisements on. The results in quantifiable advantages on both
sides of the spectrum--on the media/publisher side that will show
advertisements, revenue for advertisement spaces increases by
allowing for selection from a larger number of advertisements the
advertisement that best matches the users' interests. From the
users' perspective, for similar reasons, advertisements will be
chosen from a greater variety, and the users will be able to watch
advertisements that match the users' interests.
Conversion Approaches for Conventional Vs CPS-Based Billing
Schema
[0090] As illustrated in scenario 3 above (with reference to FIG.
5), advertisement bidding by the advertiser may also be conducted
through DSPs. In such cases, because conventional Internet
advertisements bids are placed based on the Cost per Click (CPC) or
the Cost per Mille Impressions (CPM), and bids according to the
technologies described herein are placed either based on Cost per
Second (CPS) or a function of CPS and CPC (e.g., CPS.times.CPC) for
branding as well as direct-response-hybrid-bidding, the various
modes of bidding cannot be compared readily. Therefore, a
conversion formula is very useful in allowing an advertiser to
readily understand the impact of this new approach and also
appreciate the cost savings and efficiency of the CPS based
approach. Some such conversion approaches are described herein.
[0091] Process by which eCPM Value is Converted into eCPS
Value.
[0092] The effective Cost per Mille (eCPM), or the cost for
displaying an advertisement 1000 times for a subject to be
displayed, based on past data, is used as a standard for bidding
prices. Generally, in such cases, comparison of CPM and CPC is done
with eCPM as the intermediary. In other words, when the expected or
actual Click Through Rate (CTR) is considered,
eCPM=CPC.times.CTR.times.1000 (1)
[0093] First, effective CPS (eCPS) is defined as below:
eCPS = eCPM .times. eImp PV ( 2 ) ##EQU00001##
[0094] where PV is "total number of page view", eImp is "effective
impression", and eCPM is "effective CPM". eCPM is defined above as
indicated in equation (1). Effective impression (eImp) is a value
that is incorporated in the conversion, and is defined as:
eImp = PV .times. AVT AAL ( 3 ) ##EQU00002##
[0095] Here, AAL is the average ad length, which is the average
length of all ads on the media under consideration. In general
terms, AAL is a function of ad lengths, i.e. AAL=f(Ad lengths). In
one embodiment, AAL could be an simple average of ad lengths, i.e.
AAL=(Sum of Ad Lengths)/(Number of Ads). In another embodiment, AAL
could be a weighted average of ad lengths, i.e. AAL=(weighted sum
of Ad Lengths)/(Number of Ads)". Thus, in general terms, AAL is a
function of ad lengths, i.e. AAL=f(Ad lengths).
[0096] Here, AVT, or the average viewable time is defined as the
sum of all ad view lengths (AVL) on the media divided by the total
number of page views (PV) on the media. The equation is below:
AVT = AVL PV ( 4 ) ##EQU00003##
[0097] Based on the above equations, eCPS may also be written
as:
eCPS = eCPM .times. AVL AAL ( 5 ) ##EQU00004##
[0098] With the above equations, accordingly, eCPM value may then
be converted to an eCPS value. See, e.g., FIG. 3D for an approach
for comparing eCPM to eCPS and to determine how eCPS value differs
from traditional values. Further, In the above equations, the left
side of the equation is the value devised based on the techniques
introduced herein, and the right side of the equation is the value
based on conventional technology. Using such conversion formulas, a
value that corresponds to eCPM can be calculated in the system
devised as a result of the techniques disclosed herein, allowing
the variable length advertisement display system of the present
application and other conventional systems to exchange
advertisements seamlessly. It is noted that the equation
illustrated above is merely an example, and that other conversion
formulas, as may be evident to a person of ordinary skill in the
art to be obvious variants of the above equation, are also valid
examples.
[0099] As illustrated above with reference to FIG. 3D, an eCPM
value may now be converted to an eCPS value. From a publishers
perspective, eCPM represents an expected bid for advertising in a
publisher's website under the conventional internet advertisement
technology. Similarly, the eCPS represents an expected bid for
advertising in a publisher's website under the CPS-based
advertisement technology introduced herein. As illustrated in FIG.
3D, the conventional eCPM valuation, developed for keyword based
advertisement, emphasizes search-based advertisement while
seriously undervaluing media/branding-based advertisement. In FIG.
3D, the expected bid for a search-based advertisement is $3.0 while
that for a media-based advertisement is only $0.3. The key reason
for the huge disparity in bid costs between the two publisher types
is the emphasis on CTR in conventional internet advertisement
technology, which does not account for the high branding potential
achieved through media-based advertisement.
[0100] One of the important features of the technology introduced
herein is that "high quality media with higher levels of user
engagement", which had been seriously undervalued due to the
conventional eCPM valuation, will be able to sell their
advertisement space based on the full branding potential achieved
through their "high quality media". Additionally, the technology
enables value to be revived and allows these "high quality media"
to receive advertisement fees commensurate with their "high
quality" contents. On media that have "high quality" content, the
users stay at pages longer, have longer sessions, and will not
readily depart or jump away from pages. As a result, CTR is lower,
and when calculations of advertisement value are conducted using
eCPM, the price for advertisement on this media turns out to be
lower than "low quality" media such as a website that is packed
with links (thus having higher CTR). However, as disclosed herein
with reference to the CPS-based technology, such discrepancy is
resolved by valuing high quality media for the high quality of
their contents.
[0101] As illustrated in FIG. 3D, eCPS is the eCPM that can be
expected for the publisher in the system that is devised using the
techniques introduced herein, and if this value is larger than the
eCPM value for conventional technology, it can be expected that the
publisher/media will earn a higher revenue from the increased bids.
In FIG. 3D, the media based publisher can now expect $0.7 in a
CPS-based advertisement platform instead of just $0.3 in a
conventional advertisement technology based platform. CPS-based
technology would thus allow for market value lost by conventional
technology to be rediscovered, the underrated value to be evaluated
appropriately, and the entire market to be revitalized. Overall,
the technology allows media based publishers to publish and benefit
from higher quality contents, imparting benefits to the entire
advertising ecosystem--the publisher, the advertiser, and the
user.
Illustration of Ecosystem Utilizing CPS Scheme within Conventional
Market
[0102] As illustrated above with reference to FIGS. 3B to 3D, the
methods and systems disclosed herein also interoperate with
conventional systems when, for example, connected via a DSP. The
following section discloses the CPS based advertising platform,
where various types of bidding schemes, including bidding schemes
based on conventional parameters may be accepted and conversion
schema applied to allow for interoperability. When the advertiser
is bidding by CPM, the system disclosed herein converts this bid
into CPS. In conventional systems, if an advertiser bids by CPM,
the price per 1000 page views was constant regardless of the number
of clicks. In the system devised by this invention, advertisement
slots are not sold by page views (PVs). As described above, in the
CPS methodology, the entire user session becomes a single unit ad
slot, dissected finely into seconds. Sessions are tailored to the
exact needs of advertisers. Page views no longer matter, and the
flexibility, efficiency and effectiveness of advertisements improve
significantly. When using advertisements of variable lengths such
as those devised by the techniques described herein, the switching
of advertisements are based not on page transition but on time.
[0103] FIG. 10A illustrates how AVT is computed for each media
requesting an ad placement through an Ad network. Media publishers
generally request ad placement requests through Ad networks. In the
conventional internet ad market, the ad slot inventory is sold in
units of page views, where the advertisers, for e.g., pay eCPM per
page view. In order to enable CPS based advertisement platform to
work with the conventional platform, the page view market needs to
be converted to sessions. In this embodiment, the session length is
estimated based on AVT. By placing monitoring tags in each of the
publisher's media, the Ad network and in turn Dennoo (i.e. a DSP)
can monitor both the number of page views and the total engagement
time of all ad views to compute the AVT. As described above, based
on the AVT, Dennoo can now compute the eCPS for the media
requesting ad placement. Using the conventional eCPM valuation and
the Dennoo computed eCPS ad valuation, Dennoo can identify media
publishers who are undervalued in the current ad market. Media
publishers who have a lower eCPM than eCPS can thus expect better
valuation by treating ad slots as CPS based sessions instead of
conventional page views based scheme. For example, in FIG. 10A,
unlike Media1 and Media3, Media2 has a higher eCPS valuation than
the conventional eCPM valuation. The eCPS valuation is in fact more
than double the eCPM valuation of the ad slot in Media2. Dennoo
will target ad placement in such undervalued media publishers using
bid amounts based on eCPS valuation than the conventional eCPM
valuation. The resulting higher valuation, based on the spread
between eCPM and eCPS valuation, increases Dennoo's chance of
winning the bid and monetizing the undervalued ad slot.
[0104] In FIG. 10B, an SSP, such as an Ad network, can forward the
Media2's ad placement requests to various DSPs, including Dennoo,
with the conventional eCPM valuation of $0.3 for the ad slot. DSPs,
following the conventional eCPM system, forward the ad placement
request to the advertisers and the associated eCPM value. The
advertisers, in turn, utilize the eCPM value to generate an ad
placement bid, with the eCPM forming the basis of the bid amount.
Dennoo, using AVT, generally first computes the session length of
the page views in Media2 and the corresponding eCPS bid valuation
for the ad slot. Media2 has an AVT value of 35 seconds and a
corresponding eCPS valuation of $0.7. Dennoo, instead of forwarding
a single ad placement request for eCPM value of $0.3, sends three
ad placement requests of $0.1, $0.2, and $0.4, which fully monetize
the 0.7 eCPS valuation. Also, instead of forwarding ad placement
requests to advertisers, Dennoo could select a subset of ads from a
preexisting database/list of ad placement bids received from
various advertisers. In one embodiment, an advertiser could place a
bid for 1000 impressions for a given ad or a subset of ads. Such a
bid cost will be based on eCPM, i.e. or the cost for displaying an
ad or a subset of ads a total of 1000 times. In another embodiment,
an advertiser could place a bid for 1000 effective impressions for
a given ad or a subset of ads. Such a bid cost will be based on
cost per mille effective impressions, i.e. the cost for effective
impression of an ad or a subset of ads a total of 1000 times. The
subset of ads could be generated such that the ads combined bid
amount and play-time lengths meet both the eCPS bid amount and the
AVT session length of the ad slot requesting ad placement.
Furthermore, in the event the total play-time length is not given
for an ad, Dennoo could play the ad to determine its total
play-time.
[0105] FIG. 10C illustrates the ad bid placement process. Once the
advertisers receive the ad placement request and the corresponding
eCPM value, the advertisers place an ad placement bid to display
their advertisement. Each bid includes the bid amount, which is
generally the total of the eCPM value of the ad slot and the DSP
fees. In FIG. 10C, Advertiser) places a bid of $0.33 and
Advertiser5 a bid of $0.35 to their respective DSP. Dennoo selects
ad bids from Advertiser2, 3, and 4 with bid amounts of $0.1, $0.2,
and $0.4 respectively. Also, the advertisement from Advertiser2, 3,
and 4 have a play-time length of 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 20
seconds respectively. The other DSPs, after recovering their fee of
$0.05 and $0.03 from each bid respectively, forward the ad
placement bid of $0.3 each to an SSP.
[0106] Dennoo, based on the AVT value, combines the three ads into
a single ad of 35 second play-time, where one ad begins when the
other ends. This ensures that all the three ads get displayed in
the single ad slot. Also, given that the eCPM value is known for
the ad slot and the small likely premium advertisers are bidding,
Dennoo can bid as high as $0.7, the ad slot's eCPS value, without
paying any premium. In FIG. 10C, Dennoo places a bid of $0.4 for
the combined single ad with the SSP while other DSPs have placed a
bid of only $0.3. The SSP then determines the highest bid and
forwards the advertisement of the winning bid to the Media/webpage
requesting the ad and rejects the remaining bids. The bid from
Dennoo, at $0.4, exceeds the bids from other DSPs and wins the
bidding to place the three combined advertisements in the webpage
requesting ad placement. Thus, not only was Dennoo able to win the
bid by identifying undervalued ad slots, the media publishers
benefited significantly from the increased bid amount from
Dennoo.
Illustration of Various Bidding Modes and Associated Conversion
Schema
[0107] As illustrated above with reference to FIG. 4, the methods
and systems disclosed herein also interoperate with conventional
systems when, for example, connected via a DSP. The following
sections disclose the various types of bidding schemes, including
bidding schemes based on conventional parameters may be accepted
and how conversion schema may then be applied to allow for
interoperability.
Bidding by CPC
[0108] Consider a scenario where the advertiser bids by CPC. The
system will change the conditions of the advertisement to be shown,
and from the collected data, find the condition that yields the
best outcome/effect. For the measurement of effectiveness, the
click through rate, for example, may be used. By increasing the
effectiveness of the advertisement, the advertiser will enjoy
better advertisement effect and return on investment, users will be
shown ads of greater interest to them, and publishers will become
more profitable. In embodiments, this information is continuously
collected for learning purposes, and may be used at any point to
determine the best advertisement fit for a given scenario. This
allows for optimization of the advertisement placement based on
present conditions, thus enhancing ROI for placement of the
advertisement. In embodiments, machine learning (e.g., neural
networks, fuzzy logic, or other machine learning techniques as
understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art) may be
utilized for such continuous learning. The conditions to be changed
and tested include but are not limited to the following: length of
ad; time of the day to show ad; position within the page view to
deliver the ad; characteristics of the user to which the ad is
shown; etc. The sample to be taken will be large enough to yield
statistically significant results.
[0109] An example of the sampling can be as follows. The delivery
time of the ad is x(seconds), the number of times that the ad is
delivered is T (times), the cost per second of ad delivery is Cs
(yen), the total cost is Ct (yen), then the following equation is
true:
C=x.times.T.times.C.sub.s (6)
[0110] Fixing C and solving for T, we obtain, for example, the
following chart:
TABLE-US-00004 Number of times Seconds of ad that the ad is Cost
per second delivered delivered of ad delivery Total cost 10 2000
0.001 20 11 1818 0.001 20 12 1666 0.001 20 13 1538 0.001 20 14 1428
0.001 20 15 1333 0.001 20 16 1250 0.001 20 17 1176 0.001 20 18 1111
0.001 20 19 1052 0.001 20 20 1000 0.001 20 . . . 30 666 0.001
20
[0111] When reflecting the results of the sampling and ad delivery,
this can be based on the number of times the ad is delivered, or on
the cost. If it is based on cost, the following example may be
anticipated. From a single sampling or ad delivery, we know that
the peak of clicks is at time t(seconds), and the distribution of
the clicks is S, and another n deliveries are planned, the total
cost of delivering k seconds is Ck. Ck can be renewed in the
following manner:
[0112] When k is between -2S and 2S,
Ck+=Ck/n
[0113] When k is not between -2S and 2S,
Ck-=Ck/n]
[0114] If the peak of the clicks is at 18 seconds, the distribution
(deviation) is 3, and there are 5 more deliveries left after the
first deliver, the second delivery will be as follows:
TABLE-US-00005 Number of Seconds of times the ad Cost per delivery
is delivered second Total cost 10 1600 0.001 16 11 1454 0.001 16 12
1333 0.001 16 13 1846 0.001 24 14 1714 0.001 24 15 1600 0.001 24 16
1500 0.001 24 17 1411 0.001 24 18 1333 0.001 24 19 1263 0.001 24 20
1200 0.001 24 . . . 30 533 0.001 16
[0115] Or, if the total number of deliveries is n, the cost Cki for
the ith delivery of k seconds, with the median of seconds per click
at a, will be:
Cki=Ck(i-1)+Ck(i-1)/n(-2.sigma.<k<+2.sigma.)
Cki=Ck(i-1)-Ck(i-1)/n(k<-2.sigma. or k>+2.sigma.)
Bidding Based on CPM
[0116] When the advertiser is bidding by CPM, the system disclosed
herein converts this bid into CPS. In conventional systems, if an
advertiser bids by CPM, the price per 1000 page views was constant
regardless of the number of clicks. In the system devised by this
invention, advertisement slots are not sold by page views (PVs), so
1 PV is converted into 1 AV (ad view), and the amount to be charged
will also be converted into CPS. For such bids, even if the CPM bid
is the same, the CPS price may change according to the length of
the ad. An interface in which the user enters the CPM cost, and
then enters the number of seconds to deliver ads for each AV is
entered would be expected, which will return in a real-time basis
the number of AVs that this bid would amount to. Through such
interface, advertisers can use the CPS logic and deliver ads
accordingly while using a familiar eCPM-type method. An exemplary
conversion formula comparing eCPM and eCPS was discussed above in,
for example, equations (1) and (5).
Bidding Based on Both CPS and CPC
[0117] Advertisers may also bid using a combination of CPC and CPS.
CPC is a way by which publishers guarantee to the advertisers the
effect (e.g. click) of their ad. On the other hand, CPS is a way by
which advertisers guarantee a certain amount of payment to the
publisher. For example, limiting the CPC bid to 50% of the market
"CPC-only" value, the "guarantee" can be shared equally between the
media and the advertiser. As an example, consider an approach to
bidding for ads based on both CPS and CPC. Of course, it is
understood that such an approach may be extended to other types of
advertisement bids and the bidding process may be expanded to
include the additional bid types. However, for the sake of
simplicity, we use the example illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9. In
this example, the ad(s) to be shown and their order will be
determined based on real-time advertisement display requests. The
purpose is to simultaneously consider both types of bids (CPC and
CPS), and to optimize for a mixture of CPC and CPS bids. FIG. 8
illustrates a bidding portal 800 that advertisers utilize to place
an ad bid. For each ad bid, the advertisers could set the following
parameters: (1) bid type; (2) bid amount; (3) keyword; and (4)
filter. The bid type parameter 802 allows the advertiser to choose
the bidding process to be used with the ad. The bid type, for
example, could either be CPS based or CPC based. CPS assumes that
the ad is display (branding) advertisements. The bid amount
parameter 804 is the amount of money the advertiser wants to spend
as ad cost for the advertisement. Depending on the bid type, the
bid amount could be either in price per click (for CPC-type ads) or
price per second (for CPS-type ads).
[0118] The keyword parameter 806 is utilized by the advertiser to
describe attributes of the advertisement that can be used to
determine the most appropriate website and its users to advertise
to. For example, an ad associated with keyword parameters, such as
baseball, sale, jersey, hat, gloves, etc. together can be used to
deduce that the ad could be for sale of baseball related
accessories. Based on the deduction, the ad could then be placed in
a sports news website that attracts sports fans whom are far more
likely to purchase the baseball accessories than a user of a
general news website. The filter parameter 808 allows the
advertisers to choose the websites the ad will shown in. For
example, the advertiser could search for top 10 websites based on
web traffic and select a subset from these websites to place the
ads in.
[0119] Once ad bids are placed, the method, as illustrated in FIG.
9, could be used to simultaneously consider both types of bids (CPC
and CPS) in response to an ad placement request, and optimize ad
placement for a mixture of CPC and CPS based bids. It is assumed
that ad placements requests are already attributed by keywords
based on the contents of the requesting website/page and/or user
behavioral history. The keywords associated with the ad placement
requests will be referred to as "ad space keyword" hereon after. In
step 902 in FIG. 9, in response to a real-time ad request, create a
list of ads from all the received ad bids and filter the list to
include only those ads with filter parameter 808 that includes the
requesting webpage.
[0120] In step 904, determine the bid type 802 for each of the ads
on the filtered list and calculate the expected ad placement cost
(i.e. bid amount) based on the bid type. For each bid, if the bid
type is not CPS, step 906 calculates the expected ad placement cost
based on CPC-type. In this embodiment, it is assumed that we are
contemplating only two types of ad bid types, CPS and CPC. In
general, there could be many different ad bid types and a similar
decision process can be used to determine the ad bid type and
compute the expected bid cost accordingly. For CPC bid type, the
CTR can be calculated using the correlation between ad keywords 806
and the ad space keywords. The correlation can be predicted based
on past data, such as user click through rate, when an ad of the
keyword 806 is displayed in an ad space with a given ad space
keyword. If there is insufficient data, the bid amount will be the
bid amount.
[0121] In step 904, if the bid type is CPS, step 908 calculates the
expected ad placement cost based on CPS-type ad bid. The ad cost
will be determined based on the optimal display time that the ad
will be displayed for in webpage. For a given ad, the optimal
display time can be calculated separately, for e.g., based on the
likely length of the ad that will be sufficient to generate a user
click of the ad. The likely length of the ad needed for optimal
display time can be determined based on the past data, such as
previous display lengths of ad and the ad timeline at which user
clicks were generated for the ad. In step 910, determine if there
are additional ad bids for which ad placement costs need to be
computed. If yes, repeat steps 904 through 908 as required.
[0122] Once the ad placement costs for all the ad bids have been
computed, step 912 computes a virtual price premium for each ad bid
according to the interest-matching between the ad keyword 806 and
the ad space keyword. The interest-matching can be based on past
data, such as user click through rate, when an ad of the keyword
806 is displayed in an ad space with a given ad space keyword. Step
914 calculates a weighted ratio for each ad. The weighted ratio is
based on the virtual price premium determined in step 912 and the
actual ad placement cost determined for each ad bid in steps 906
and 908. In step 916, the display ranking, according to which the
ads will be placed in a ad requesting webpage, will be determined
based on the weighted ratio of each ad calculated in step 914.
Thus, the ad(s) to be shown and theft order will be determined
based real-time, while simultaneously considering both types of
bids (CPC and CPS). Additionally, through interest matching of free
keywords, a fair and natural auction (as compared to the arbitrary
nature of interest categories) will be realized.
Computing Advertising Indices
[0123] The index for the conventional method of advertisement in
which the effective price of 1000 impressions is eCPM, and the
indices devised by techniques introduced herein (e.g., in which CPS
and CPC are designated in combination) for branding and direct
response are "Branding plus Direct Response CPS (bdCPS)" and
"Branding Plus Direct Response CPC (bdCPC)", Non-limiting examples
of computing various advertising indices, as contemplated by the
CPS methodologies introduced herein, are now presented.
[0124] The unit of advertisement is the general term
"Advertisement", or its shortened form, "Ad(s)".
[0125] If the Ad is displayed even for an instant, that display is
considered an "Ad View (AV)", and corresponds to the index "Page
View (PV)" for the displaying of websites, etc. For example, if an
advertisement is shown 1000 times, that would be counted as 1000 Ad
Views (AVs).
[0126] Next, the inherent length of a specific advertisement (i.e.
the length of an advertisement movie) is referred to as the "Ad
Length (AL)". If the advertiser submits an advertisement video that
has a length of 15 seconds, the AL is 15 seconds regardless of the
users' actions or display times.
[0127] The specific time that an ad has been shown on the screen is
referred to as the "Ad View Length (AVL)". If a user jumps to a
different website after 8 seconds of a 15-second ad has been shown,
the AL is 15 seconds, but the AVL is 8 seconds.
[0128] When an ad or multiple ads have been shown for a certain
number of times, the average of the AVLs is referred to as the
"Average Ad View Length (AAVL),"
[0129] The click rate for a certain number of AVs shall be referred
to as the "Ad View Click Rate (AVCR)".
[0130] By calculating the cost necessary for an ad to be clicked
once by the user, in the case of bdCPC.times.bdCPS, the cost when
bCPS is used can be deducted and a recommendation may be made for
bCPS.
[0131] The cost between clicks is bdCPS.times.SPC+bdCPC, and
therefore bCPS must be the cost between clicks/SPC.
bdCPS.times.SPC+bdCPC/SPC=bCPS.times.SPC (7)
[0132] Average Ad Length (AAL) is:
AAL = n AAVLn n ( 8 ) ##EQU00005##
[0133] In embodiments, We can assume that PV and AV have equivalent
values. The conventional system using eCPM sells all PVs over, for
example, 3 seconds long at the same price, regardless of the length
of the video. This is one of the fundamental flaws of CPM.
[0134] The relationship between AV and PV are as shown below:
AV = PV .times. APVL .times. 1000 .times. n n AAVLn ( 9 )
##EQU00006##
[0135] where, when a number of pages have been viewed for a total
page view length of x seconds, Average Page View Length (APVL) is a
simple average of page view length, i.e. APVL=(Sum of page view
length)/(Number of Page Views).
[0136] In one embodiment, AAL could be an simple average of ad
lengths, i.e. AAL=(Sum of Ad Lengths)/(Number of Ads). In another
embodiment, AAL could be a weighted average of ad lengths, i.e.
AAL=(weighted sum of Ad Lengths)/(Number of Ads)". Thus, in general
terms, AAL is a function of ad lengths, i.e. AAL=f(Ad lengths).
[0137] Here, the relationship between CTR in conventional eCPM
systems and AVCR in the system as contemplated herein is defined,
and this is used to calculate the number of clicks in 1000 PVs and
the clicking cost for 1000 PVs.
CTR=the number of clicks/PV
AVCR=the number of clicks/AV
[0138] in conventional eCPM systems, the clicking cost of 1000
PV=1000.times.CTR.times.CPC. On the other hand, in the eCPS system
using bdCPC.times.bdCPS, the following relationships are true:
the number of clicks in 1000 PV = 1000 .times. ( AV / PV ) .times.
AVCR the clicking cost for 1000 PVs = 1000 .times. ( AV / PV )
.times. AVCR Thus , the number of clicks in 1000 PV = 1000 .times.
CTR .times. CPC .times. 10 3 .times. APVL .times. 10 3 .times. n n
AAVL n .times. AVCR .times. bCPC + bdCPS .times. SPC .times. 10 3
.times. APVL .times. 10 3 .times. n n AAVL n .times. AVCR ( 11 )
##EQU00007##
[0139] Now, bCPS in eCPS can be represented by the clicking cost in
1000 PVs, and a connection can be made with bdCPS.times.bdCPC in
eCPS.
AVCR=the number of clicks/AV
Seconds for 1000PVs=PAVL.times.1000
clicking cost for
1000PVs=1000.times.(AV/PV).times.AVCR.times.bCPC+bdCPS.times.SPC.times.10-
0.times.(AV/PV).times.AVCR
Then,
the clicking cost for, 1000PVs/seconds for 1000PV=recommended
bCPS
[0140] This means that:
bCPS = 10 3 .times. n n AAVL n .times. clicks AV .times. bCPC +
bdCPS .times. SPC .times. 10 3 .times. n n AAVL n .times. clicks AV
Thus : ( 12 ) bCPS = bdCPC .times. clicks + bdCPS .times. SPC
.times. clicks PV .times. APVL bCPS = bdCPC + bdCPS .times. SPC
APVL .times. CTR ( 13 ) ##EQU00008##
[0141] This makes a connection between bCPS and bdCPS.times.bdCPC
in eCPS. eCPS indicators may also be computed as:
eCPS=(bdCPC+bdCPS.times.SPC).times.CTR.times.1000 (14)
[0142] In embodiments, eCPS is the eCPM that can be expected for
the publisher in the system that is devised using the techniques
introduced herein, and if this value is larger than the eCPM value
for conventional technology, it can be expected that the
publisher/media will yield a higher revenue. This would allow for
market value lost by conventional technology to be rediscovered,
the underrated value to be evaluated appropriately, and the entire
market to be revitalized,
Determining Order of Priority for Advertisements
[0143] Based on the above-discussed ability to obtain eCPS value,
the "order of priority for advertisements" can be determined. Here,
the expected CTR or the SPC, eCPS, interest matching score, the
quality of ad creativeness or the quality of the ad landing page,
etc. are indices that are the basis when determining the "quality
of the advertisement", and the "order of priority which takes the
quality of advertisements into considerations", can be calculated,
for example, as below:
S ( u , k ) = n C n ( u , k ) W n ( u , k ) ( 15 ) ##EQU00009##
[0144] Here, S is the total quality score, u is the advertiser, k
is the keyword that is the target of the advertisement, Cn is a set
of elements that compose the quality and Wn is the weighted value
for each of these elements. The above equation is merely an example
and the formula for calculated the quality of advertisements need
not be limited to the above equation.
[0145] Further, the quality of advertisements in the device devised
by this invention need not be based on the Seconds per Click (SPC)
index, but for example on the Ad View Click Rate (AVCR). When this
is the case,
AVCR=Number of Clicks/Number of Effective Distributions of the
Advertisement
[0146] In embodiments, the systems described herein may be equipped
with a mechanism to match keywords that are set for advertisements
to become targets for distribution and keywords or the equivalents
thereof that users have entered into a webpage or keywords that
have been extracted from web pages viewed by the user. The
mechanism to calculate the fit of these keywords can be as
explained below.
[0147] The goodness of fit for a pair of arbitrary keywords k1 and
k2 can appropriately be calculated by the semantic similarity of
the pair. For an area such as web advertisements in which new
topics are continuously born and these newly born topics can be of
high importance, it is essential to deal with unknown keywords.
Therefore, Sh (k1, K2)=[Distance within the class] if the keyword
pair is known and the existing class relations can be used
semantically. If this is not the case, the distance Sq (k1, K2) in
a keyword graph dynamically composed from the Co-occurrence
frequency can be used. The total goodness of match can be
calculated with a weighted sum S(k1,k2)=h Sh(k1,k2)+g Sg(k1,k2).
Here, for an unknown keyword, the most similar known keyword S (k1,
K2) can be obtained and used as the alternative keyword by
calculating the distance between character strings
[0148] Further, when using advertisements of variable lengths such
as those devised by the techniques described herein, the switching
of advertisements are based not on page transition but on time, and
additionally, they can switch upon page transition as shown in FIG.
5. In the case where switching occurs upon page transition, because
it would be assumed that a new series of advertisement display
occurs upon switching pages, the possibility that the same
advertisement will be shown more than once to the same user will
become higher. On the other hand, if advertisements are distributed
by the device devised by this invention rather than based on page
transition, if it is assumed that the same series of advertisement
display is continuing, a single series of advertisement display
becomes longer, and the possibility that the same advertisement
will be shown more than once will decrease, but the possibility
that a low-priority advertisement is shown will become higher.
[0149] Here, several indices can be used to determine the order of
priority in displaying advertisements. Some examples of events or
matters that may be the basis of these indices are as illustrated
in the chart below.
TABLE-US-00006 Elements for determining the order of priority for
displaying advertisements Obtained from Target for displaying the
advertisement (keywords, the DSP attribution, etc) Bidding prices
(CPC; CPS) Length of the Advertisement (AD Length AL) Size of the
Advertisement Obtained from Length of time that the ad was actually
displayed (Ad View the SSP Length AVL) (Click Through Rate, CTR)
the time necessary for a click to occur (Seconds per Click, SPC)
the total number of seconds until a conversion is reached (Seconds
Per Action, SPA) Attribution of contents and users Obtained by The
goodness of fit for the attribution of the contents on the device
which and users to which the advertisement is show, and the
keywords and attributions that advertisements targets for display
Quality of the pages to which jumps are made upon clicking
advertisements devised by this Goodness of fit between the
advertisement and the invention keywords that the advertisement
targets for display
[0150] With these events and matters considered, indices to
determine the order of priority to display advertisements can be
devised as below, and by determining the order of priority to
display advertisements based on these indices, the value of
displaying advertisements can be increased
[0151] Examples of Methods to Determine Order of priority of
Advertisement Display
[0152] Indices to determine the order of priority to display
advertisements can be devised as illustrated using illustrative
examples below. By determining the order of priority to display
advertisements based on these indices, the value of displaying
advertisements may be increased, allowing for a more competitive
and efficient advertising paradigm.
[0153] For a page p that the user u is viewing, a calculation of
the weighted order of priority of display for advertisement group
aj may need to be computed. In other words, the function w
(a.sub.j, u (p)), which calculates the weight, will express the
algorithm for the entire calculation. Here, u (p) expresses the
profile of user u when page p is viewed, including the viewing
history.
[0154] When calculating using the degree of similarity between
keywords, calculations are executed by expressing each user profile
and advertisement as a set of attributed keywords Ku and Ka. In
other words, w(a.sub.j, u(p))=w(Ka.sub.j,Ku). The degree of
similarity between an arbitrary keyword pair of k1 and k2 can be
calculated by the method abovementioned. Using this, the order of
priority for displaying the advertisement can be obtained by
sorting for
w ( a i , u ( p ) ) = m , n c m c n s ( k m , k n ) ( 16 )
##EQU00010##
[0155] Here, c.sub.m is the coefficient is based on the attribute
type of the keyword, and by adjusting this coefficient, the
attribute value of both the DSP and the SSP may be determined.
Time-Variable CPS Based on User Interaction with Advertisement
[0156] In at least some embodiments as disclosed herein, the Cost
per Second (CPS) of an advertisement can be varied within a given
advertisement. In one instance, the CPS of an advertisement can be
varied for each image frame in the advertisement. In another
instance, the CPS of an advertisement can be varied for each
section of the advertisement, where each section is defined by a
fixed length of time. In embodiments, the CPS value for a given
section of the advertisement can be determined based on a detected
user's interaction with the displayed advertisement. In
embodiments, the CPS value for a given section of the advertisement
can be determined based on a user's interaction within a publisher
page where the advertisement is displayed. For example, a user
interaction could be a user click within the displayed
advertisement or the publisher page, a pause, play or rewinding of
the displayed advertisement, a data input by the user within the
advertisement or the publisher page, etc.
[0157] FIG. 14 illustrates the time-variable CPS process. In step
1405, the ad platform requests and receives an advertisement from
an advertiser to be placed in a publisher's advertisement section.
In step 1410, the ad platform transmits the advertisement to be
placed in the publisher's advertisement section. In step 1415, the
ad platform determines an overall eCPS (effective Cost-Per-Second)
value for the display of the entire length of the advertisement. In
step 1420, based on the advertisement's length, the ad platform
partitions the advertisement into multiple segments of equal
length. Let us assume that a certain advertisement has a creative
of length L, and an eCPS value for the entire length of the
advertisement of .alpha..sub.0. The advertisement is of length L is
partitioned into J segments, where segment I.sub.j timeframe is
defined as:
I.sub.j=[(j-1)L/J,jL/J)], (j=1, . . . , J) (17)
[0158] where, each segment is of the same length.
[0159] In step 1425, for each partition, based on actual user
interaction and empirical user interaction information, the ad
platform determines the probability of occurrence of each possible
user interaction with the advertisement within that partition.
Further, the ad platform utilizes a weighed score associated with
each user interaction, where the weighted score reflects the value
of each user interaction within that partition to the advertiser.
Let A=(a.sub.1; a.sub.2; . . . ; a.sub.K) be the set of users'
interactions under consideration, and let s.sub.K be the score of
interaction a.sub.K respectively. Further, in some embodiments,
lets assume that i<j=>s.sub.i<s.sub.j, where interactions
which share the same score are considered identical.
[0160] For example, the ad platform estimates the probability
p.sub.k.sup.(j) of an occurrence of response a.sub.k in the jth
segment I.sub.j. Given data D={(a.sub.k(n),t.sub.(n))}.sup.N=1 of
users' responses and time they occurred, the ad platform estimates
p.sub.k.sup.(j) by the following formula:
p k ( j ) = n jk + n kj * N j + k = 1 K n kj * ( 18 )
##EQU00011##
[0161] where, n.sub.jk is the number of occurrences of response
a.sub.k, n.sub.kj* denotes some prior knowledge about probability
of response a.sub.k occurring in segment I.sub.j.
[0162] Further, N.sub.j is the total number of responses which
occurred in segment I.sub.j or later and is defined by the
following equation:
N j = j ' = j J k = 1 K n kj ' ( 19 ) ##EQU00012##
[0163] In step 1430, for each partition, the ad platform determines
an overall score based on the determined probability of occurrence
of each possible user action within the segment and the weighed
score reflecting the value of each user interaction within that
segment to the advertiser. In one embodiment, the ad platform
calculates the expected score S.sub.j of segment I.sub.j by
equation S.sub.j=.SIGMA..sub.k s.sub.kp.sub.k.
[0164] In step 1435, the ad platform, for each partition,
determines a new eCPS value that is a function of the weighted
average of the partition's overall score and the overall eCPS value
of the advertisement. In embodiments, the ad platform, calculates
the adjusted CPS c(t) (i.e. eCPS) in terms of p.sub.k.sup.(j) and
S.sub.j. In embodiments, we assume S.sub.j>0. In cases where
S.sub.j<0, we can add in some constant so that S.sub.j>0
holds. Here, CPS c(t) (i.e. eCPS) in terms of p.sub.k.sup.(j) and
S.sub.j is defined as:
c j = S j j = 1 J S j .alpha. 0 J ( 20 ) ##EQU00013##
[0165] Further, we determine the form of CPS c(t) for each
partition using S.sub.j such that the values c.sub.j preserves eCPM
for the advertiser, where it is assumed that c(t) takes constant
c.sub.j over each segment I.sub.j;
.alpha. 0 L = j = 1 J c j L J ( 21 ) ##EQU00014##
[0166] In step 1440, the ad platform determines the total cost of
displaying the advertisement based on the advertisement partitions
displayed to the user and the respective CPS c(t) (i.e. eCPS value)
associated with each of the displayed advertisement partition. The
ad platform, thus, produces a piecewise constant CPS c(t) for the
length of the advertisement.
[0167] FIG. 15 illustrates an advertisement with five partitions
for which a piece-wise constant CPS c(t) is computed by the ad
platform using the above described embodiment. Here, J=5, where the
advertisement is partitioned into 5 segments of 5 seconds each,
where the advertisement is of length L=25 seconds. Also, let CPS
.alpha..sub.0=$0.10 eCPS, such that the overall cost of displaying
the entire ad of length L of 25 seconds is $2.5. Lets say overall
score for each segment, based in the probability of occurrence of
various actions and their relative value of those actions to the
advertiser, is S1=1, S2=1, S3=6, S4=1, S5=1.
[0168] Based on equation 20, C1=(1/10)*0.1*5=$0.05;
C2=(1/10)*$0.1*5=$0.05; C3=(6/10)*$0.1*5=$0.30;
C4=(1/10)*$0.1=$0.05; C5=(1/10)*$0.1*5=$0.05.
[0169] Based on equation 21, we have CPS .alpha..sub.0*L=$0.1
eCPS*25 sec=$2.5=(0.05+0.05+0.3+0.05+0.05)25/5=$0.5*25/5=$2.5.
Thus, the ad platform produces a piece-wise CPS c(t) of $0.05,
$0.05, $0.3, $0.05 and $0.05 for segments I.sub.1, I.sub.2,
I.sub.3, I.sub.4 and I.sub.5 respectively. In embodiments, when
only segments I.sub.1, I.sub.2 and I.sub.3 are displayed to the
user, the overall cost of displaying the ad is length of each
segment.times.their respective CPS c(t) value. Here,
5*$0.05+5*$0.05+5*$0.3=$2.00 (compared to $1.5 for an advertisement
with an overall constant eCPS of $0.1 for the 15 seconds over the 3
segments).
"Keep" Advertisement and Tracking Effective Impression and
Relevancy of Such Kept Advertisement
[0170] In the internet market as of today, the internet has become
a "media" with the introduction of social media such as Facebook,
Twitter, etc. An aspect of the technology introduced herein is an
ability to launch a cost-effective ad campaign for a limited period
of time in the Internet, and especially the social media such as
Facebook, Twitter, etc. Unlike the conventional eCPM based ad
campaigns, where advertisers are charged per display, the eCPS
based model charges the advertisers only in the event of an
effective impression. Further, social media such as Facebook offer
users the ability to save and share content from across the web
with other users. One such content could be advertisements. For
example, ads during Super Bowl are some of the most watched content
on the web, where users forward and share these ads repeatedly. In
such a scenario, the current system of charging advertisers based
only on display of ads in the media publishers' website fails to
fully capture the effective impressions achieved from each replay
of the saved ads by the users.
[0171] In embodiments of the CPS based advertisement platform, the
platform allows the advertisers and the media publishers to track
such saved ads and count the effective impressions from replays
towards the determination of final cost of the ad campaign. Such a
platform not only provides advertisers a more complete picture of
the effect of the ad campaign, it also allows the media publishers
to fully monetize their user base, when such users share and
re-view the saved ads. In embodiments of the CPS based
advertisement platform, a "keep" button can be added to the ads or
to a user's user page to allow the user to save and collect ads.
The user can later view such "kept" ads from the user's user page.
Further, the "keep" page will be open to other users who can also
watch and share these ads.
[0172] In embodiments, such "kept" ads will be tracked by the CPS
based advertisement platform. So, every time the users watch these
"kept" ads, the CPS based advertisement platform will charge the
advertisers using a CPS cost basis (i.e. based on consideration
such as mouse roll-over time, sound-on time and other user
engagements). The ads will disappear from the user's "keep" page
once the ad campaign finishes. In embodiment, the platform tracks
the number of times the users pressed the "keep" button. Further,
the platform could track the users on media publishers such as
Facebook and Twitter. The platform could monitor the sites for
number of "Like" collected, tweet mentions, etc. In embodiments,
the advertisers could be provided with metrics such as "Like"
counts, "Keep" counts, tweets, etc. to help enable advertisers to
better gauge user interests. Further, the advertisers could be
charged for ads based on the ad campaign's effectiveness, where
such determination of effectiveness is based on the analysis of
"Like" counts, "Keep" counts, tweets, etc.
[0173] FIGS. 13A, 13B, and 13C illustrate one embodiment where the
above described "Keep" feature is practiced. The illustrative
embodiment is merely meant to describe one embodiment where the
"Keep" feature is practiced and is not meant to be a limiting
embodiment of the invention in any sense. There are other
embodiments that one of ordinary skill in the art can quickly
recognize and practice the above described "Keep" feature in for ad
tracking, sharing and improving revenue realization for publishers,
etc. FIG. 13A illustrates a publisher's website "www.nytimes.com"
1300 being viewed through a web browser, where an ad slot 1315 is
available in the to publisher's website 1300 to display
advertisement amongst other publisher news content 1312, 1330, 1335
and 1360 and a "Kept Ads" section 1340 to view any previously kept
ads. In one embodiment, the website 1300 includes user accounts
that a visitor to the website 1300 can utilize to customize the web
pages in the website 1300. In FIG. 13A, a visitor has logged into
the website 1300 using the user name John Doe 1305, where the user
name is displayed at the top of the current web page 1310. Every
time the visitor logs into their user account, the website 1300
loads their preferences and any visitor specific content they have
bookmarked or saved into their user account. In another embodiment,
the website 1300 can utilize cookies to track the visitor and
visitor's preferences and load the visitor specific content to the
website every time the visitor visits the website without requiring
the visitor to setup a user account or log into such a previously
setup user account.
[0174] In one embodiment, the ad slot 1315 in the web page 1310 is
used to display advertisements, where the ad slot includes a
integrated ad control bar 1330. The ad control bar 1330 includes a
rewind button 1322, a play/pause button 1324, a forward button
1326, a keep button 1328 and a share button 1332. When a
visitor/user wishes to replay a previously displayed advertisement
or restart a currently playing advertisement, the user can use the
ad control bar 1330 integrated within the ad slot 1315 to
transition to any of the previously displayed advertisements. For
example, when the user clicks the rewind button 1322 once in the
middle of the display of advertisement 3, the ad slot 1315 will
rewind the ad back to the beginning of advertisement 3 and replay.
When the user clicks the rewind button 1322 twice in the middle of
the display of advertisement 3, the ad slot 1315 will rewind the ad
back to the beginning of advertisement 2 and replay. Once the user
has watched the replay of an advertisement, the user may wish to
skip any intermediate advertisement between the replayed
advertisement and the advertisement that is yet to be fully served
at least once to the user and return to fully watch the
advertisement that is yet to be fully served. For example, after
the user has watched advertisement 1 the user can use the
navigation bar 330 to navigate to either advertisement 2 or 3. The
user could click on the forward button 1326 once to transition to
advertisement 2 at any point during the viewing of advertisement 1.
Similar to the rewind button 1322, clicking the forward button 1326
twice will transition the user to advertisement 3 at any point
during the viewing of advertisement 1. The play/pause button 1324
allows the user to start playing an advertisement or pause a
currently playing advertisement. In one instance, the share button
1332 allows a user to share the currently playing advertisement in
the ad slot 1315 with another user. In one instance, the user could
forward a www link, such as a link to the advertisement in the
advertiser's webpage, to the email address of another user. The
other user could click on the www link in the email to go to the
appropriate webpage, where the advertisement is automatically
displayed when the webpage is loaded in the other user's web
browser.
[0175] In one embodiment, when the user wishes to save any of the
ads served through the ad slot 1315, the user can click the "Keep"
button 1328 to store a copy of any currently displayed
advertisement in the ad slot 1315 to a content repository
associated with the user account John Doe in the website 1300. In
another embodiment, the kept ad can be stored in the user's
computer and retrieved and displayed by a server associated with
the website 1300 when the user next visits the website 1300.
Whenever the user specific content is loaded into the website 1300,
a server associated with the website 1300 could track and populate
the Kept Ads slot 1340 with the previously saved ads. Each
previously saved ad could be displayed in the Kept Ads slot 1340 as
list of icons 1345, where clicking on one of the displayed icons
1345 using a mouse could replay the associated advertisement in the
ad slot 1315. In another embodiment, the advertisement associated
with the icons 1345 could be replayed in a media player, such as
Windows Media Player, Apple Quicktime player, etc., previously
loaded into the user's computer or mobile device.
[0176] In another embodiment, the user could utilize the navigation
bar 1346 in the Kept Ads slot 1340 to navigate between the list of
icons 1345 and replay any of the stored ads. For example, the
backward 1348 and forward 1352 button can be used to navigate
between the various icons 1345 displayed in the Kept Ads slot 1340
and the play/pause button 1350 to replay the advertisement
currently associated with the selected icon from the icon list
1345. The share button 1354 allows a user to share the currently
selected advertisement from the list 1345 with another user. In one
instance, the user could forward a www link, such as a link to the
advertisement in the advertiser's webpage, to the email address of
another user. The other user could click on the www link in the
email to go to the appropriate webpage where the advertisement is
automatically displayed when the webpage is loaded in the other
user's web browser.
[0177] In another embodiment, the "Keep" button 1328 can act to
bookmark a currently playing advertisement that appealed to the
user, where the bookmark is tracked by the ad platform that served
the bookmarked advertisement. In one instance, the ad platform
manages the Kept Ads slot 1340 and populates the Kept Ads slot 1340
with icons 1345 that act as links to each of the kept ads. In one
instance, the links are associated with copies of the kept
advertisements that are stored in servers that are part of the ad
platform. When a user clicks on one of the displayed icons 1345
using a mouse, the associated advertisement is loaded from the ad
platform server into the ad slot 1315 and replayed in the ad slot
1315. In one embodiment, the advertisement associated with the
icons 1345 could be replayed in a media player, such as Windows
Media Player, Apple Quicktime player, etc., previously loaded into
the user's computer or mobile device.
[0178] In another embodiment, the user can utilize the navigation
bar 1346 in the Kept Ads slot 1340 to navigate between the list of
icons 1345 and replay any of the stored ads. For example, the
backward 1348 and forward 1352 button can be used to navigate
between the various icons 1345 displayed in the Kept Ads slot 1340
and the play/pause button 1350 to replay the advertisement
currently associated with the selected icon from the icon list
1345. The share button 1354 allows a user to share the currently
selected advertisement from the list 1345 with another user. In one
instance, the user could forward a www link, such as a link to the
advertisement in the advertiser's webpage, to the email address of
another user. The other user could click on the www link in the
email to go to the appropriate webpage where the advertisement is
automatically displayed when the webpage is loaded in the other
user's web browser. In one embodiment, the user could utilize the
rate button 1356 to rate the replayed advertisement. The ad
platform could capture the user provided ratings using a
cookie.
[0179] In one embodiment of the CPS advertisement platform, the
platform utilizes the cookies to track such kept ads and count the
effective impressions from replays towards the determination of
final cost of the ad campaign. Such a platform not only provides
advertisers a more complete picture of the effect of the ad
campaign, it also allows the media publishers to fully monetize
their user base, when such users share and re-view the saved ads.
So, every time the users watch these "kept" ads, the CPS based
advertisement platform will charge the advertisers using a CPS cost
basis (i.e. based on consideration such as mouse roll-over time,
sound-on time and other user engagements). In one embodiment, the
kept ads could be part of an ad campaign with a limited budget.
Every time the ad is successfully displayed, the ad budget is
reduced by the cost of successfully serving the ad. In another
embodiment, the ads will disappear from the user's "Kept Ads" slot
1340 once the ad campaign finishes or the ad campaign budget runs
out. In embodiment, the platform tracks the number of times the
users pressed the "keep" button. In another embodiment, the
platform could track the users on social media publishers such as
Facebook and Twitter and collects metrics related to social media
that help better track the kept ads within the social media. For an
advertisement displayed within a social media publisher, the
platform could monitor the sites for number of "Like" collected,
tweet mentions, etc for the displayed advertisement. In
embodiments, the advertisers could be provided with metrics such as
"Like" counts, "Keep" counts, tweets, etc. to help enable
advertisers to better gauge user interests. Further, the
advertisers could be charged for ads based on the ad campaign's
effectiveness, where such determination of effectiveness is based
on the analysis of "Like" counts, "Keep" counts, tweets, etc.
[0180] Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will
appreciate still additional alternative structural and functional
designs for a system and a process for keeping ads and tracking
such kept ads through the disclosed principles herein. Thus, while
particular embodiments and applications have been illustrated and
described, t is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are
not limited to the precise construction and components disclosed
herein. Various modifications, changes and variations, which will
be apparent to those skilled in the art, may be made in the
arrangement, operation and details of the method and apparatus
disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope
defined in the appended claims.
Gross Rating Point (GRP) for Comparing Ad Effectiveness in
Different Media
[0181] Another aspect of the technology introduced herein is an
ability to identify and appreciate the efficacy of an ad campaign,
especially when the same advertisements are offered through
different media. As an example, consider a comparison of a
branding-type ad shown as a regular TV advertisement and when shown
in web media in conjunction with the CPS-based technology disclosed
herein. Of course, it is understood that such comparison may extend
to other types of advertisements (e.g., search based
advertisements) and comparisons may be between or among various
different types of media. However, for the sake of simplicity, we
use the example illustrated in FIGS. 6A-6B.
[0182] Here, as illustrated in FIG. 6A, the same advertisement is
displayed using a TV 530 and also using a CPS-backed ad campaign.
In the case of the TV advertisement 530, the ad clip is shown, for
example, every 10 minutes during an hour for 20 seconds each time.
However, the area covered by the advertisement is 100% (meaning it
occupies the full screen). In the case of a branding e-commerce
campaign 550, the advertisement is shown only at 10% of the area of
the screen, but is shown continuously for the entire hour (assuming
in this example that this is the only advertiser and has bid in a
CPS manner for advertising through the entire page session). Here,
the ad impression, i.e., the effective impression of the ad can be
computed as the area multiplied by time of display of the ad. In
this example, the effective impression for the two types of media
is roughly the same--with the TV campaign showing the ad in a
larger area, but in overall shorter duration, and the Internet
campaign showing the ad in a smaller area, but in overall longer
duration. Accordingly, given the approximately equal impression
values, one would expect cost of advertising to be the same.
However, that is not the case, and cost of advertising in a
relative sense needs to be determined.
[0183] Since it is difficult to compare directly the cost of the
campaigns, a Gross Rating Point (GRP) manner of comparison is
introduced. Here, GRP is defined as the product of the percentage
of target audience reached by an ad (percentage of population that
saw the ad) and the ad frequency in the campaign. Accordingly, in
the above example, as illustrated in FIG. 6B, if a 15 s ad was
shown three times during a 10% reach show, and a particular
demographic has 5.35 million households, where the cost per GRP in
the TV campaign is $1000. As can be seen, the total cost using the
GRP technique for the TV campaign is at $30,000. On the other hand,
in the internet based campaign, the CPS bid by the advertiser is
effectively 0.0002 cents per second. Using similar conditions, the
cost is $700 for the above example. That is, for similar ad
impressions, the CPS-backed Internet campaign is substantially less
expensive relative to the TV counterpart. This computation and
comparison has two benefits: it allows an advertiser to readily
perceive the difference in cost of campaigning in different media
to obtain similar ad impressions; and it also allows an advertiser
to readily appreciate the advantage of using CPS-backed technology
to achieve similar efficacy while reducing cost of advertising.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for Comparing Ad Effectiveness
[0184] In addition to GRP, another aspect of the technology
introduced herein is an ability to identify and appreciate the
efficacy of an ad campaign using key performance indicators (KPI)
which allow advertisers to better tailor their ads for their target
audience. One such KPI provided in the CPS-based ad platform is the
effective impression time associated with an ad's keyword 806 and
filter parameters 808. As illustrated in FIG. 11A, in a
conventional ad platform, advertisers are generally provided ad
performance metrics such as total impressions, total number of
clicks, CTR, conversions and conversion rates. In a CPS-based ad
platform, advertisers are provided not only the above mentioned
conventional performance metrics; but additional performance
indicators such as impression time and the total effective
impression time. For example, in FIG. 11A, when ads with keywords
806 such as "Baseball" are associated with an ad, the advertisers
are given not only the conventional performance metrics like CTR,
they are also provided the ad's impression time and the total
effective impression time. The advertisers can then truly gauge
viewer interest in the ad, for e.g., based on whether the keyword
"Baseball" associated with the ad helped place the ad in an
appropriate forum. Similarly, when ads with filter 808 such as
"ESPN.com" are associated with an ad, the advertisers can then
truly gauge viewer interest in the ad, for e.g., based on whether
the website "ESPN.com" associated with the ad helped place the ad
in an appropriate forum. Also, a combination of keyword 806 and
filter 808 parameters that generate a high effective impression
would be very helpful to the advertisers to better target their ad
spending effectively.
[0185] Another KPI provided in the CPS-based ad platform is the
correlation between impression time and CTR for an ad campaign. As
illustrated in FIG. 11B and 11C, in a conventional ad platform,
advertisers are generally provided ad performance metrics such as
total impressions, total number of clicks, CTR, conversions and
conversion rates. However, advertisers are generally clueless as to
at what point in a given ad's play-time was the ad clicked by the
user or what the minimum play-time needs to lapse before a user
will click an ad. These metrics are highly relevant to an
advertiser because they help advertisers determine if an ad's
content appeals to its target audience. The metrics also help
determine what the best length for an ad should be to generate high
number of viewer clicks. In FIGS. 11B and 11C, it can seen that,
when ads are played for less than 3 seconds, the percentage of
clicks generated within that time period is dose to zero. This is
understandable, given that users need to at least watch the ad for
a few seconds before they will click. As the impression time
increases and reaches the full ad length of 15 seconds, the
percentage of clicks generated is the highest at this point. Again,
this is understandable given that users who watched the entire ad
were more likely to click the ad than those who didn't. Another
interesting observation that advertisers can utilize in tailoring
theirs ads is determine the point of low CTR compared to length of
play-time. In FIG. 11B, at 13 seconds of play-time, the percentage
of clicks is dose to that of at the 5 or 7 second play-time. This
could be, for e.g., because viewers lost interest in the ad's
content. Based on this information, advertisers can tailor their ad
lengths and messages accordingly to try and reengage the audience
they were losing at the end of the ad play-time.
Tracking Ad Relevancy Using User Interaction
[0186] Another practical result of the technology introduced herein
is the various provisions available within the ad platform that
allows advertisers to track a user's interaction with displayed
advertisements and improve the efficiency and relevance (from the
user's perspective) of future advertisements shown that best
matches the user's interest. In one embodiment, the tracking could
be done using cookies that capture a user's interaction with a
displayed ad. Many other ways exists for tracking a user's
interaction with any specified portion of a publisher's webpage or
other content, including advertisements displayed on portions of
the publisher's webpage. Any such method works with the present
invention.
[0187] In the CPS methodology, as illustrated in FIG. 3C and FIG.
12A, the entire user session in a given publisher's website becomes
a single unit ad slot, dissected into seconds. Sessions can be
tailored to the exact needs of advertisers. Page views will no
longer matter. When using advertisements of variable lengths such
as those devised by the techniques described herein, the switching
of advertisements are based not on page transition, but on time. A
user transition from one page view to another does not cut-off an
ad. Instead, the ad is resumed in the next page view until it is
fully played.
[0188] For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3C, in a 110-second user
session, 70 seconds can be allocated to advertiser A, another 30
seconds to advertiser B, and 5 seconds to advertiser C. When the
user transitions from page view 1 to page view 2 after 45 seconds,
25 seconds of play-time is still left on ad A. Therefore, ad A is
resumed and played for the remaining 25 seconds in page view 2
before ad B is played, Once ad A is complete, ad B is played for 30
seconds. When the user transitions to page view 3, ad B is fully
played. So, ad C starts playing at the beginning of page view 3.
However, the user ends the session with 20 seconds of play-time
left in ad C. Therefore, the advertiser is charged only for the 5
seconds of the 25 second play-time ad C was played. Thus, page
views will no longer matter, and the multiple advertisements A, B
and C rotate one after the other in a predetermined order.
[0189] In one embodiment, the ad platform utilizes the
advertisement rotation in a given user session and the order of
displayed advertisements in the rotation to enable a user to return
to previously displayed advertisements and forward back to any
displayed point in the advertisement last served before the return.
The ad platform tracks the users returns and forwards to identify
both a positive impression of the user based on the attention drawn
to the displayed advertisement and the relevancy of the displayed
advertisement based on the advertisement that was replayed by the
user. The ad platform could utilize information relating to the
advertisement that was replayed by the user to identify other
advertisements that are closely associated with the replayed
advertisement and serve such identified advertisements to the user.
In one instance, the associated advertisements that were identified
could be added to the advertisement rotation that is being
displayed to the user in the current user session. In another
instance, the ad platform could score the relevance of the
identified associated advertisements higher when determining
advertisements to be placed in rotation in a later user session for
the same user, increasing the chances of the advertisements that
drew the users attention earlier is displayed.
[0190] For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C, in a
140-second user session in a publishers website 1204, viewed
through a web browser 1202, an ad slot 1218 is available in the to
publisher's website 1204 to display 140 seconds of advertisement
amongst other publisher news content 1206, 1208, 1210, 1212, 1214
and 1216. As shown in FIG. 12A, of the 140 seconds available for
advertisement in ad slot 1218, 40 seconds can be allocated to
advertisement 1 another 40 seconds to advertisement 2, another 40
seconds to advertisement 3 and 20 seconds to advertisement 4.
Advertisements 1 and 2 have been completely served over 80 seconds.
About 20 seconds of advertisement 3 has been displayed to the user
with another 20 seconds of advertisement 3 and about 50 seconds of
advertisement 4 still left to be displayed to the user in the
current user session. The ad platform maintains the loaded
advertisements, including the previously played advertisements, in
the user's system even after the advertisement has been displayed
to the user. In some instances, the ad platform could allow the
user to navigate and play any advertisement, from any timeline
point, which has already been loaded into the user's system.
[0191] In one embodiment, when a user wishes to replay either of
the previously displayed advertisements 1 and 2 or restart
advertisement 3 from the beginning, the user can use the navigation
bar 1222 integrated within the ad slot 1218 to transition to any of
the previously displayed advertisements. For example, when the user
clicks the rewind button 1224 once in the middle of the display of
advertisement 3, the ad slot 1218 will rewind the ad back to the
beginning of advertisement 3 and replay. When the user clicks the
rewind button 1224 twice in the middle of the display of
advertisement 3, the ad slot 1218 will rewind the ad back to the
beginning of advertisement 2 and replay. Similarly, if the user
again clicks the rewind button 1224 once as the ad slot 1218
transitions to the beginning of advertisement 2, the ad slot 1218
will rewind the ad back to the beginning of advertisement 1 and
replay advertisement 1. Other similar combinations of clicks to
transitions are possible and this embodiment is not limited to the
above described embodiment of a combination of clicks and
transitions within a given ad slot. Any known similar combinations
of clicks to transitions can be used along with the present
invention.
[0192] Once the user has watched the replay of an advertisement,
the user may wish to skip any intermediate advertisement between
the replayed advertisement and the advertisement that is yet to be
fully served at least once to the user and return to fully watch
the advertisement that is yet to be fully served. For example,
after the user has watched advertisement 1, the user can use the
navigation bar 1222 to navigate to either advertisement 2 or 3. The
user could click on the forward button 1228 once to transition to
advertisement 2 at any point during the viewing of advertisement 1.
Similar to the rewind button 1224, clicking the forward button 1228
twice will transition the user to advertisement 3 at any point
during the viewing of advertisement 1.
[0193] In one embodiment, any additional click counts on the
forward button 1228 over two, when watching advertisement 1, will
not transition the user to advertisement 4 or above. The user will
have to fully watch advertisement 3 before the user could skip to
advertisement 4. In another embodiment, clicking the forward button
1228 will let a user transition up to the last advertisement that
has been at least partially loaded into the user's system,
irrespective of whether any intermediate advertisements between the
replayed advertisement and the last loaded advertisement is yet to
be fully watched by the user. Other similar combinations of clicks
to transitions are possible and this embodiment is not limited to
the above described embodiment of a combination of clicks and
transitions within a given ad slot. Any known similar combinations
of clicks to transitions can be used along with the present
invention.
[0194] In another embodiment, the user can perform the above
described transitions between advertisements based on other well
known methods that allow a user to transition between different
segments of rich media displayed to a user through a compatible
widget embedded in a given web page or a given web browser. For
example, in one embodiment, a user can use a mouse pointer 1230
within the ad slot and a motion of the mouse pointer 1230, within
the ad slot, left or right along with a click, can rewind or
forward the advertisement. A motion left could be signal a rewind
while a motion right could signal a forward. The granularity of the
rewind or forward of the advertisements per motion-click could be a
single advertisement, a few seconds of an advertisement, etc. Other
similar forms of clicks to signal a transition are possible and
this embodiment is not limited to the above described embodiment.
Any known similar combinations of mouse motions with clicks could
be used to signal transitions and can be used along with the
present invention.
[0195] In one instance, the ad platform could utilize the number of
user rewind or forwards clicks to determine the exact advertisement
the user is interested in watching again. The ad platform could
analyze the identified advertisement the user replayed to improve
relevancy of later served advertisements to the user. For example,
if a user replayed advertisement 1, which is related to a Honda
automobile, the ad platform could start serving the user with
advertisements related to new automobiles, automobile financing,
automobile warranties, etc., which are highly likely to appeal to
the user if the user is interested in buying a new automobile.
[0196] Similarly, in another instance, the ad platform could
utilize the tracking to increase the cost of advertisement display
to one advertiser and reduce the cost to the other based on the
actual viewing of the advertisement by the user. For example, when
a user skipped part way through advertisement 3 and returned to
advertisement 1 to watch it again, the ad platform could charge the
advertiser of advertisement 1 for serving the advertisement twice
to the user. Similarly, the advertiser of advertisement 3 will be
charged only for the portion of the advertisement, based on the
actual viewed length, by the user instead of charging the
advertiser of advertisement 3 for the display of the whole ad. In
one instance, given that the user is going out of her way to replay
a previously displayed ad, there is increased likelihood that the
user is actually viewing the replayed advertisement 1. In such a
scenario, the ad platform could charge the advertiser of the
replayed advertisement 1 a higher eCPS charge for any portion of
the replayed advertisement than the eCPS charge for displaying the
advertisement the first time to the user.
[0197] Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will
appreciate still additional alternative structural and functional
designs for a system and a process for tracking ad relevancy using
user interaction through the disclosed principles herein. Thus,
while particular embodiments and applications have been illustrated
and described, it is to be understood that the disclosed
embodiments are not limited to the precise construction and
components disclosed herein. Various modifications, changes and
variations, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art, may
be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the method and
apparatus disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and
scope defined in the appended claims.
Examples of Practical Applicability of the CPS-Based Advertising
Paradigm
[0198] A practical result of the technology introduced herein is an
increase in efficiency and relevance (from the user's side) that an
advertisement shown is relevant and matches the user's interest. On
the publisher/media's side, the loss or waste in advertisement
space is substantially mitigated. On the advertisers' side, by
displaying advertisements only for a necessary and sufficient
length of time and by being charged accordingly, the cost for a
certain branding effort can be measured with higher accuracy and
can also be implemented more efficiently. Additionally, in
embodiments, the implementation of a unique bidding and sales
technique that combines branding advertisement and direct response
advertisements, results in at least the following perceivable
advantages: (1) the set of options for advertisement sales will
increase; (2) sales schemes and strategies will diversify and
become increasingly specific; and (3) as a result, an expansion of
the entire market can be expected.
[0199] In online advertisement, due to the legacy that search
advertisement was the first major success, direct response
advertisements, usually traded using Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost
per Action (CPA), have been the mainstream. However, in the
internet market as of today, the internet has become a "media" with
the introduction of social media, etc., along with conventional
search engines (CPC advertisement) and e-commerce engines (CPA
advertisement), and the average page view length or session length
is becoming significantly longer. Cost per Mille (CPM) is used
often in conventional internet advertisement as the billing method
for branding advertisements, and the recommended/suggested bidding
price is often calculated using eCPM (CPC.times.CTR.times.1000),
but if advertisements are supposed to be sold for branding
purposes, there would be no logical foundation in using eCPM. One
of the reasons for the lack of such a logical foundation is that
with eCPM, the CTR (which is an index that is relevant for direct
response advertisements) is the decisive factor in determining the
price. CPS, on the other hand, offers methods and systems of
selling the length of time that an advertisement is displayed on
the user's screen, which is independent of CTR and other direct
response advertisement-related indices, making CPS a much fairer
and efficient scheme of selling advertisements. CPS causes internet
or e-commerce advertising measurable and accountable in a manner
similar to how audience ratings and CPM cater to television
broadcasting.
[0200] In the exemplary illustrations outlined above, a method and
system was identified for comparing "eCPS" in relation to "eCPM."
The technology disclosed herein allows for indices such as the
total viewing time on the publisher side, number of views of an ad
(AV), average number of seconds that an ad has been seen (AAVL),
etc., to be measured and calculated. Such measurement is not
possible in conventional online advertisements. These indices
further offer a mechanism to calculate the suggested value of eCPM
and compare with the suggested value against other advertising
schemes (i.e., when eCPM is replaced with, for example, CPS (for
branding) or CPS.times.CPC (for branding and direct response)).
[0201] "eCPS" expresses the suggested price for bCPS (branding CPS)
alone as well as "bdCPS.times.bdCPC" (branding and direct
response). Therefore, as discussed in the various scenarios above,
the conventional value of (eCPM) is comparable with the various
values or schemes identified herein (eCPS bCPS bdCPS.times.bdCPC).
eCPS, is an index that has its primary focus on branding, as
compared to conventional eCPM which primarily focuses on direct
response. eCPM is also affected by other indices such as CTR and
CPC that are directly associated with direct response
advertisements, and eCPS allows for such influences to be
ignored.
[0202] A key feature of the technology introduced herein is that
"high quality media with higher levels of user engagement", which
had been seriously undervalued due to the conventional eCPM
valuation, will be able to sell their advertisement space based on
the actual time that advertisements have been displayed on users'
screens. Additionally, the technology enables value to be revived
and allows these "high quality media" to receive advertisement fees
commensurate with their "high quality" contents. On media that have
"high quality" content, the users stay at pages longer, have longer
sessions, and will not readily depart or jump away from pages. As a
result, CTR is lower, and when calculations of advertisement value
are conducted using eCPM, the price for advertisement on this media
turns out to be lower than "low quality" media such as a website
that is packed with links (thus having higher CTR). However, as
disclosed herein with reference to the CPS-based technology, such
discrepancy is resolved by valuing high quality media for the high
quality of their contents. The technology thus allows higher
quality contents and advertisements to be published, imparting
benefits to the entire advertising ecosystem--the publisher, the
advertiser, and the user.
Illustration of Ecosystem Utilizing an Integrated Ad Platform for
Ad-Slot Inventory Purchase, Ad-Slot Bid Price Adjustment, and
Ad-Slot Bid Score Calculation
[0203] As illustrated below with reference to FIGS. 10B and 10C,
the methods and systems disclosed herein disclose another
embodiment of an integrated ad platform that allows advertisers to
buy inventory of ad slots in media, adjust ad-slot bid price,
calculate ad-slot bid score, and calculate GRP related metrics.
Media Inventor, and Cookie
[0204] In one embodiment, media, inventory (ad frame) and cookies
are defined as in the below example, where a user with certain
attribute information cookie.sub.h accesses a media M.sub.i, and
the ad platform provides the advertisers with an opportunity to
show an ad to this user through an ad inventory (ad frame)
F.sub.i,j associated with the ad platform.
[0205] In some embodiment, there are two general logics as to how
advertising opportunities are bought. The first is to bid for the
inventory (ad frame) itself (e.g. buying inventor in bulk such as
by CPM). The other is to bid based on the attribute information
that the user has (e.g. bidding for a single impression to a
specific cookie, as in real-time bidding, or RTB). With the
disclosed ad platform, both of these logics could be combined into
a single bidding logic. The details are discussed in later
sections, but here, an example based on CPM, which is more of an
inventory-buying approach is used to illustrate the ad platform.
Also, for a RTB based method, one needs to apply the same logic but
replace the term "inventory" or "ad frame" in CPM based bid to the
term "cookie" as associated with RTB.
[0206] For an inventory (ad frame) F.sub.i,j, AVT.sub.i,j defines
the average viewable time (AVT) that the inventory (ad frame)
F.sub.i,j has been 60% or more visible on the screen in terms of
area, per page view, during a specified time period T.
Advertisers and Campaigns
[0207] In one embodiment, advertisers and campaigns are defined as
below.
[0208] In some embodiments, AL.sub.k,l is defined as the length of
the ad creative that is specified for an advertising campaign
Camp.sub.k,l of advertiser Adv.sub.k (if the ad creative is a still
banner, then the advertiser specifies the length through the
dashboard). The number of times that the ad creative has been shown
in campaign Camp.sub.k,l is defined as Imp.sub.k,l, and the
Weighted Average Ad Length (wAAL) refers to the weighted average of
all ads that have been served to a certain ad frame F.sub.i,j
during time period T. wAAL is defined as:
wAAL i , j , k , l = k , l ( AL i , j , k , l .times. Imp i , j , k
, l ) i , j , k , l ( Imp i , j , k , l ) . ( 22 ) ##EQU00015##
[0209] Here, Imp.sub.i,j,k,l is the number of times that Ad l by
advertiser k has been served to inventory j of Media i, and
AL.sub.i,j,k,l is the length of this ad.
[0210] If Effective Impression (eImp) is defined as the full
serving of an ad of length AL.sub.k,l, the number of Effective
impressions that can be shown within a page view can be expressed
as
eImp k , l = AIT i , j AL k , l . ( 23 ) ##EQU00016##
Cost-Per-Second and the Suggested Bid Value
[0211] In one embodiment, p.sub.i,j is defined as the average price
during period T for buying a single impression of inventory
F.sub.i,j (the traditional concept of property-based inventory can
be replaced by a cookie-based approach such as in RTB). The number
of seconds of ad impression of F.sub.i,j that can be bought with
p.sub.i,j, is AVT.sub.i,j. If the unit of sales differs, the logic
is adjusted accordingly (e.g. if the unit of sales is per Mille
Effective Impressions, we may use 1,000.times.p.sub.i,j as a
reference value).
[0212] The average number of seconds for which all advertisers in
period T had an advertising strategy (e.g. the length of the video
uploaded, the length of banner impression specified) for inventory
F.sub.i,j is wAAL. Therefore, the cost-per-second of strategic time
(time for which advertisers had an advertising strategy) can be
defined as:
cps i , j = p i , j wAAL i , j , k , l . ( 24 ) ##EQU00017##
[0213] Conventionally, advertiser Adv.sub.k paid p.sub.i,j buy
inventory F.sub.i,j and showed AL.sub.k,l seconds of their ad, but
the advertiser only had a strategy for the AL.sub.k,l seconds, so
the remaining (AIT.sub.i,j-AL.sub.k,l) seconds were wasted.
[0214] The integrated ad platform, in one embodiment, is able to
bring more than one advertiser per page view, and thus AL.sub.k,l
seconds of inventory F.sub.i,j can be sold to advertiser Adv.sub.k.
The cost per second used to calculate the suggested bid value for
this advertiser is cps.sub.i,j, and therefore the suggested bid
value for advertiser Adv.sub.k is
bid.sub.suggested=cps.sub.i,j.times.AL.sub.k,l.
[0215] With the integrated ad platform, a total of
p ^ i , j = AIT i , j wAAL k , l .times. p i , j ##EQU00018##
can be sold per page view, and therefore {circumflex over
(p)}.sub.i,j-p.sub.i,j becomes the extra margin generated by the
integrated ad platform logic.
Adjustment of Bid Value
[0216] The trade (buying and selling) of inventory is generally
based on an auction, and therefore if the bid value is not high
enough, the inventory cannot be bought at a pace commanded by the
campaign, and if the bid value is excessively high, unnecessary
costs are being paid. Therefore, the bid value should be adjusted
according to the actual performance.
[0217] Assuming that the general market price for buying a certain
inventory is p.sub.i,j, we use p.sub.i,j as the base value.
[0218] If the duration of campaign Camp.sub.k,l is
t.sub.Camp.sub.k,l and the time period necessary to determine
whether an adjustment in the bid value is necessary or no is
t.sub.test, the number of judgments that would be conducted during
this campaign Camp.sub.k,l would be
test Camp k , i = t Camp k , l t test . ##EQU00019##
We also express the mth test (judgment) of the campaign as
test.sub.m. If t.sub.test=1, a judgment will be made after each
impression served.
[0219] We now define buy.sub.i,j,test.sub.m as the number of bids
that are placed by integrated ad platform for inventory F.sub.i,j
during test.sub.m, and win.sub.i,j,test.sub.m as the number of wins
during this period. From this, we can define the rate of winning
as
winrate i , j , test m = win i , j , test m buy i , j , test m . (
25 ) ##EQU00020##
[0220] If winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.m falls below a certain optimal
value winrate.sub.i,j,optimal defined for various reasons (e.g. to
reach campaign goals), the size of the inventory would not suffice
in meeting the campaign goals of advertisers. Campaign goals can be
defined by various indices, such as Reach, Action, Budget &
Cost, etc. Reach could be further defined by factors such as (a)
total impressions; (b) total unique browsers; (c) effective
impressions; (d) unique browsers to which effective impressions are
served; (e) total seconds; (f) GRP; etc. Action could be further
defined by factors such as (a) clicks; (b) conversions; (c) organic
searches; (d) social actions such as Facebook likes, Facebook
shares, Tweets, Google+, Dennoo Save, etc. Budget & Cost could
be further defined by factors such as (a) budget used; (b) cost per
action; (c) cost per second; etc.
[0221] The example shown below is based on the total impressions
served. For a given advertiser Adv.sub.k and campaign Camp.sub.k,l,
if the total number of impressions served is
TotalImpressions.sub.Camp.sub.k,l, and the goal is to reach
GoalImpressions.sub.Camp.sub.i,j, a "successful campaign" for this
advertiser would simply be
TotalImpressions.sub.Camp.sub.k,l.gtoreq.GoalImpressions.sub.Camp.sub.k,l-
.
[0222] If ones assumes that Adv.sub.k is the only advertiser and
campaign Camp.sub.k,l is the only campaign, and therefore all
inventory bought by the integrated ad platform during test.sub.m is
used by Camp.sub.k,l, the number of impressions served at the time
that test.sub.m would amount to win.sub.i,j,test.sub.m.
[0223] At this time, if
t test t Camp k , i >> win i , j , test m GoalImpressions
Camp k , i , ##EQU00021##
then it can be predicted that the campaign goals would not be met.
On the other hand, if
t test t Camp k , i << win i , j , test m GoalImpressions
Camp k , i , ##EQU00022##
the campaign goals may be met, but the pace may be too fast, and
the campaign budget may be used up before the campaign period is
over.
[0224] Therefore, in order to meet the campaign goals under an
appropriate schedule, the integrated ad platform must purchase the
inventory at the optimal price, which shall be defined as
below:
[0225] If the bid price by the integrated ad platform for inventory
F.sub.i,j during test.sub.m is dennoobid.sub.i,j,m, then the bid
price at m=1 would be dennoobid.sub.i,j,1=p.sub.i,j.
[0226] At this time, if winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.1 falls below the
optimal rate winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.1 (determined based on, for
example, campaign goals), then at m=2, the bid would be placed at
bid.sub.i,j,2=p.sub.i,j+a, and if winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.1 is
above the optimal rate winrate.sub.i,j,optimal, a bid will be
placed at bid.sub.i,j,2=p.sub.i,j-a.
[0227] Next, at m=2, if
winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.2<winrate.sub.i,j,optimal again falls
below the optimal rate winrate.sub.i,j,optimal determined by the
integrated ad platform, at m=2, a bid will be placed at
bid.sub.i,j,2=p.sub.i,j+2a. On the other hand, if
winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.2>winrate.sub.i,j,optimal again, a bid
will be placed at bid.sub.i,j,2=p.sub.i,j-2a. If
winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.2<winrate.sub.i,j,optimal at m=1 and
winrate.sub.i,j,test.sub.2>winrate.sub.i,j,optimal at m=2, then
a bid will be placed again at bid.sub.i,j,2=p.sub.i,j+a.
[0228] If the campaign begins at m=1, the number of wins at m can
be expressed as below.
1 m win i , j , test m ( 26 ) ##EQU00023##
[0229] Similarly, the number of losses can be defined as below.
1 m ( bid i , j , test m - win i , j , test m ) ( 27 )
##EQU00024##
[0230] Therefore, the bid value at m can be expressed as below.
bid i , j , m = p i , j + 1 m ( 2 win i , j , test m - bid i , j ,
test m ) ( 28 ) ##EQU00025##
[0231] The advertiser can designate a maximum bid value
maxbid.sub.k,l,m, and depending on this value, even if
winrate.sub.i,j,optimal is not reached, the adjustment of
dennoobid.sub.i,j,m may stop. For example, if there is only one
advertiser bidding on the integrated ad platform, winning a bid at
a value larger than maxbid.sub.k,l,m would generate a loss for the
integrated ad platform, so the bid value will not be increased.
Bid Score and the Selection of Advertisers
[0232] In one embodiment, the judgment as to which advertiser's ad
should be served in an ad-slot through the integrated ad platform
will be determined by the campaign and targeting settings
designated by the advertisers. There are two main ways by which
targeting can be set for a campaign.
[0233] Under the first method, advertisements are not shown in an
ad-slot if the various ad and ad-slot attributes do not match. Some
of the attributes used in the determination are (a) media
targeting, i.e., designating a specific media M.sub.i; (b)
geographic targeting; (c) demographic targeting; (d) day and time
parting (specific dates, days, times), etc. Under the second
method, advertisements are shown based on a bid score, where the
bid score is calculated using attributes such as (a) ad-slot bid
value; (b) interest matching (e.g. keywords, categories); (c)
continuation of Ad between page views, etc.
[0234] Based on the above, an example of the calculation of bid
score may be expressed as the below:
Bidscore i , j , k , l = ( target media .times. .times. target geo
) ( n a n x n ) ( 29 ) ##EQU00026##
[0235] Here, the variables target.sub.media.times. . . .
.times.target.sub.geo take a value of 1 if it matches the
designation by the campaign, and takes a value of 0 if it does not
match the designation of the campaign. n is a set of campaign score
variables, x.sub.n is its value, and is the coefficient that
designates the weight of this campaign score.
[0236] Three examples of score variables are (a) Bidding Score
a.sub.bidx.sub.bid=a.sub.bid.times.bid.sub.i,j,m; (b) Interest
Matching Score a.sub.interestx.sub.interest; and (c) Continuation
Score a.sub.continuex.sub.continue.
[0237] With the integrated ad platform, if the user jumps to a
different page within the session, and there is a compatible ad
frame, at the next page, the remainder of the ad will be served at
that page. The continuation score will take a value when the user's
cookie holds information about a previous ad serve (that meets
certain criteria such as the time gap between the previous
impression and the current) and how long it was served during the
previous impression.
[0238] Five examples of the targeting scores are (a) Media
targeting target.sub.media; (b) Geographic targeting
target.sub.geo; (c) Demographic targeting target.sub.demo; (d) Day
Parting target.sub.time; and (e) Frequency Control target.sub.freq.
An example of the definition of a bid score is expressed as:
2win.sub.i,j,test.sub.m-bid.sub.i,j,test.sub.m)
[0239] Further, in another embodiment, a "recency value" can be
used in the calculation of the bid score. In one embodiment,
"recency" is basically the idea that before a conversion (e.g.
brochure request through an advertiser's website, where such as
request was the intended final goal of an ad campaign), the user is
exposed to ads multiple times. For example, the user could have
been exposed to a banner ad at Facebook, a second video ad at
Yahoo!, and then finally searched for a related keyword, and
clicked on an ad to arrive at the landing page, resulting in a
"conversion".
[0240] In one embodiment, by tracking the various impressions and
the relative time period of conversion, the integrated ad platform
can identify the "recency" of a particular impression (for example,
it is the third impression to this user) and the associated
conversion with that "recency". Accordingly, the bid score
corresponding to a particular "recency" can be adjusted to reflect
this added value to the advertiser. Further, if the ad platform
determines that the user has not been exposed to any impressions
before the search and conversion, then the ad platform can
attribute it to offline ads that the user has been exposed to.
[0241] In one embodiment, in the integrated ad platform, the order
of the ads served will be determined based on the bid score of each
ad, with the higher score leading to a higher preference for
showing in the given ad-slot.
Maximizing Amount of User Viewing Time while Reducing Overall Ad
Cost
[0242] In one embodiment, the amount of viewing time can be
increased while the overall ad cost can be reduced by buying
impressions with long viewable time and low CPM. Here, in
embodiments, impressions are bought from Real-Time Bidding (RTB),
where bids are made on CPM basis. Before bidding, the ad platform
gathers sufficient amount of information to estimate the following
values for known ad inventories A={a.sub.1, . . . a.sub.n}: (1)
average viewable time T.sub.i of a.sub.i; (2) eCPI m.sub.i of
a.sub.i; (3) the expected number of a.sub.i's impressions
n.sub.i.
[0243] In embodiments, a.sub.i is ordered such that
m i T i .ltoreq. m j T j ##EQU00027##
if i<j. Further,
m i T i ##EQU00028##
refers to the ePPS (estimated price per second), where if ePPS is
low, then the amount of advertisement cost tends to be low.
Therefore, ePPS of a.sub.i is not greater than that of a.sub.j if
i<j. Further, in embodiments, all a.sub.i's have the same
combination of targeting attributes. Several examples of targeting
attributes are: (1) information on the user (location, referrer,
etc.); (2) type of a website to which the ad slot belongs to
(sports, finance, etc.); (3) time of day.
[0244] For the above embodiment, the ad platform targets to achieve
the goal g.sub.c of each campaign c.epsilon.C.sub.A, where C.sub.A
is the set of all campaigns which are suitable for all of the ad
inventories in A. Here g.sub.c is given in the unit of second.
Further, even if the goal is given in the form of the number of
impressions n.sub.c, the ad platform can set
g.sub.c=n.sub.c.times.l.sub.c, where l.sub.c is the ad length of
this campaign's ad. In addition, two sets of campaigns C.sub.A1 and
C.sub.A2 are disjoint if A.sub.1 and A.sub.2 have different
targeting attributes.
[0245] Method:
[0246] The following part describes how the ad platform can achieve
g.sub.c for each c.epsilon.C.sub.A with less spending. In one
embodiment, the ad platform first describe how we can sift out ad
inventories with high ePPS, then expresses how the ad platform can
make bids to win, and finally make adjustment to the criteria of
sifting
[0247] Sifting Out Costly Ad Inventories:
[0248] To achieve all campaigns' goals, the ad platform need to
acquire G=.SIGMA..sub.c.epsilon.C.sub.Ag.sub.c seconds through
auctions at the RTB. Now let the ad platform take the smallest
.theta. so that
.SIGMA..sub.i.ltoreq..theta.n.sub.iT.sub.i.gtoreq.G. Then in order
to obtain this amount of viewable time, it is sufficient to win all
impressions ePPS of which is less than or equal to
m .theta. T .theta. . ##EQU00029##
Moreover, if this condition is satisfied, each campaign has
obtained more impressions than desired. Thus, all impressions the
ad platform need to buy are, theoretically, impressions generated
from a.sub.i's, where i.ltoreq..theta..
[0249] Bid Making:
[0250] In order to win these impressions, the ad platform needs to
make high bids when necessary. Here, for instance, the ad platform
has score .alpha..gtoreq.0, that takes higher (or lower) value if
the campaigns are underachieving (or overachieving). Then, ad
platform can make the following bid b when an impression is offered
from ad inventory a.sub.i(i.ltoreq..theta.):
b=.lamda.m.sub.i+(1+.lamda.).alpha. (30)
[0251] where 0.ltoreq..lamda..ltoreq.1 is some constant.
b>m.sub.i if m.sub.i>.alpha. and b<m.sub.i if
.alpha.<m.sub.i.
[0252] The previous bid is made based on eCPM price, but ad
platform can make a similar bid based on ePPS price:
b = T i ( .lamda. m i T i + ( 1 - .lamda. ) .alpha. ) ( 31 )
##EQU00030##
[0253] Here ad platform assumed "a" is transformed appropriately to
be used in this equation.
[0254] Adjustment to Criteria:
[0255] In the previous argument, the ad platform bid only for ad
inventories a.sub.i with indices i.ltoreq..theta.. Since the ad
platform took smallest .theta., there is no room for loss at the
RTB. The following two methods can allow the ad platform to lose in
auctions: (1) The ad platform takes the smallest .theta. so that
.SIGMA..sub.i.ltoreq..theta.n.sub.iT.sub.i.gtoreq..alpha..sub.0G
for some .alpha..sub.0>1; (2) The ad platform leaves .theta.
unchanged, but allows to bid for impressions derived from ad
inventories which have higher ePPS than ad inventory a.sub..theta.
does.
[0256] If the ad platform takes option 1, then the ad platform has
more chances to bid for impressions while allowing for loss. If the
ad platform takes option 2, the ad platform could make a lower eCPM
bid for ad inventories with higher ePPS. The ad platform can do
this by the following procedure: (1) Let {circumflex over
(m)}.sub.i=f(m.sub.i), where f is some function which assigns
{circumflex over (m)}.sub.i.apprxeq.m.sub.i if i.ltoreq..theta. and
{circumflex over (m)}.sub.i<m.sub.i if i>.theta.;
[0257] (2) The ad platform uses {circumflex over (m)}.sub.i in
making bids, where could be equation 32 or 33:
b = .lamda. m ^ i + ( 1 - .lamda. ) .alpha. ( 32 ) b = T i (
.lamda. m ^ i T i + ( 1 - .lamda. ) .alpha. ) ( 33 )
##EQU00031##
[0258] An example of function f is:
f ( x ) = A + B 1 + exp ( - ( .chi. - .mu. s ) ) ( 34 )
##EQU00032##
[0259] where A, B, .mu., s are constant. As illustrated in FIG. 16,
if we set A=1, B=-1/2, .mu.=5>.theta., s=0.5, then f(x) has the
shape shown in FIG. 16.
Bidding and Displaying Advertisements in Smart Phones Utilizing
Various Cost Models
[0260] In present ad platforms, the business model is that the ad
inventory is provided by the media, and a margin (e.g. 50%) is
taken based on results, and if results do not look like they should
look, the inventory will no longer be provided. The ad inventory
could be procured either in advance or through real-time bidding
(RTB) by the ad platform.
[0261] Cost Model for Monetizing Smart Phones:
[0262] Media, providing inventory, could monetize smart phone venue
through two cost models: (1) Ad space (fixed at the bottom of the
screen), which will be sold by CPC; (2) Rich-media type ads that
expand, which will be sold by CPS. The pricing logic will be
Z.times.N/Ad Length (AL)=CPS, where N is a coefficient necessary
for covering the ad delivery costs. When deciding N, (Ad View
Length):(Ad Length) is important. For example, if AVL:AL=1:3, then
because the average viewing time of an ad is for instance, 5 sec
out of 15 sec, 3 could be appropriate for N.
[0263] Combining models (1) and (2), the Total Ad
cost=CPC+(Z.times.N/AL).times.AVL, where Z is the ad delivery cost.
Here, with (1), the ad platform will optimize CTR by adjusting the
rotation time. With (2), the CPS charging will be the "ad delivery
cost" of delivering rich media ads. Therefore, it will be based on
the ad delivery cost Z.
[0264] Advertisers will be charged standard CPC as the model for
charging for the advertisement while CPS will be used as the "ad
delivery cost" for the advertisement.
Gross Rating Point (GRP)
[0265] Gross Rating Point (GRP) is generally defined as the
measurement of delivering one impression of a given ad to 1% of the
Potential Reach. Here, in one embodiment, Potential Reach refers to
the number of unique browsers that match the targeting conditions
designated for campaign Camp.sub.k,l. The number of GRPs for a
given campaign Camp.sub.k,l can be expressed as below:
GRP Camp k , i = Reach k , i PotReach k , l .times. Freq k , l
.times. 100 ( 35 ) ##EQU00033##
[0266] Additionally, Reach.sub.k,l refers to the number of unique
browsers to which ads are/were actually served to in Camp.sub.k,l,
and frequency Freq.sub.k,l refers to the number of times that the
same ad has been served to the same unique browser during a given
time period.
[0267] Here, a television commercial is used to illustrate the
online GRP as described above. For example, in Tokyo, where there
are approximately 5 million households (i.e. Potential Reach), if a
TV show reaches 1 million of these households (i.e. Reach), then
the rating point would be 20%. If an ad is shown 3 times during
this show, then the number of GRPs would be calculated as
below,
1 , 000 , 000 5 , 000 , 000 .times. 3 .times. 100 = 60 GRP ( 36 )
##EQU00034##
[0268] In another embodiment, PotReach.sub.k,l is determined based
on the campaign settings, and the maximum number of impressions per
unique browser (or in the case of TV commercials, the number of TVs
or households) is given by the frequency cap freqcap.sub.k,l
designated by the advertiser. If the PotReach.sub.k,l,
freqcap.sub.k,l and the length of the ad to be served AL.sub.k,l
are determined, then the price per 1 GRP of GRP.sub.Camp.sub.k,l
can be defined by as below:
CPGRP Camp k , l = cps i , j .times. AL k , l .times. PotReach k ,
l .times. freqcap k , l 100 ( 37 ) ##EQU00035##
Architecture of Platform Server
[0269] FIG. 7 is a high-level block diagram showing an example of
the architecture for a computer system 600 that can be utilized to
implement, for example, a platform server (e.g., 114 from FIG. 1),
a web server (e.g., 125 from FIG. 1), or any other computing device
identified in the above disclosure. In FIG. 6, the computer system
600 includes one or more processors 605 and memory 610 connected
via an interconnect 625. The interconnect 625 is an abstraction
that represents any one or more separate physical buses, point to
point connections, or both connected by appropriate bridges,
adapters, or controllers. The interconnect 625, therefore, may
include, for example, a system bus, a Peripheral Component
Interconnect (PCI) bus, a HyperTransport or industry standard
architecture (USA) bus, a small computer system interface (SCSI)
bus, a universal serial bus (USB), IIC (I2C) bus, or an Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 694 bus,
sometimes referred to as "Firewire."
[0270] The processor(s) 605 may include central processing units
(CPUs) to control the overall operation of, for example, the host
computer. In certain embodiments, the processor(s) 605 accomplish
this by executing software or firmware stored in memory 610. The
processor(s) 605 may be, or may include, one or more programmable
general-purpose or special-purpose microprocessors, digital signal
processors, programmable controllers, application specific
integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or
the like, or a combination of such devices.
[0271] The memory 610 is or includes the main memory of the
computer system 1100. The memory 610 represents any form of random
access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory (as
discussed above), or the like, or a combination of such devices. In
use, the memory 610 may contain, among other things, a set of
machine instructions which, when executed by processor 605, causes
the processor 605 to perform operations to implement embodiments of
the present invention.
[0272] Also connected to the processor(s) 605 through the
interconnect 625 is a network adapter 615. The network adapter 615
provides the computer system 600 with the ability to communicate
with remote devices, such as the storage clients, and/or other
storage servers, and may be, for example, an Ethernet adapter or
Fiber Channel adapter.
[0273] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout
the description and the claims, the words "comprise," "comprising,"
and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense to say, in
the sense of "including, but not limited to"), as opposed to an
exclusive or exhaustive sense. As used herein, the terms
"connected," "coupled," or any variant thereof means any connection
or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more
elements. Such a coupling or connection between the elements can be
physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the
words "herein," "above," "below," and words of similar import, when
used in this application, refer to this application as a whole and
not to any particular portions of this application. Where the
context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the
singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular
number respectively. The word "or," in reference to a list of two
or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the
word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list,
and any combination of the items in the list.
[0274] The above Detailed Description of examples of the invention
is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the
precise form disclosed above. While specific examples for the
invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various
equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the
invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.
While processes or blocks are presented in a given order in this
application, alternative implementations may perform routines
having steps performed in a different order, or employ systems
having blocks in a different order. Some processes or blocks may be
deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to
provide alternative or sub-combinations. Also, while processes or
blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these
processes or blocks may instead be performed or implemented in
parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further any
specific numbers noted herein are only examples. It is understood
that alternative implementations may employ differing values or
ranges.
[0275] The various illustrations and teachings provided herein can
also be applied to systems other than the system described above.
The elements and acts of the various examples described above can
be combined to provide further implementations of the
invention.
[0276] Any patents and applications and other references noted
above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing
papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the
invention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems,
functions, and concepts included in such references to provide
further implementations of the invention.
[0277] These and other changes can be made to the invention in
light of the above Detailed Description. While the above
description describes certain examples of the invention, and
describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the
above appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways.
Details of the system may vary considerably in its specific
implementation, while still being encompassed by the invention
disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when
describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not
be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to
be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects
of the invention with which that terminology is associated. In
general, the terms used in the following claims should not be
construed to limit the invention to the specific examples disclosed
in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section
explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the
invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also all
equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under
the claims.
[0278] While certain aspects of the invention are presented below
in certain claim forms, the applicant contemplates the various
aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. For example,
while only one aspect of the invention is recited as a
means-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.112, sixth
paragraph, other aspects may likewise be embodied as a
means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being
embodied in a computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be
treated under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.112, 6 will begin with the words
"means for.") Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to add
additional claims after filing the application to pursue such
additional claim forms for other aspects of the invention.
* * * * *